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The  immortal  life 


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PRESEP^TED  S 

The  Ecumenical  Comr 
THE  CHAPLAIIMCY  :c> . 
TO  PRJSOHERS  C 


.AH 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


JAN    14    2004 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


t>\,  $^..  di©  Oi'SPTiijj'sii 
GENEVA  ^wLiiztrauitiO) 


THE  IMMORTAL  LIFE 


BELIEF  IN  IT  WARRANTED  ON 
RATIONAL  GROUNDS 


BY 

REV.  LUCIUS  Q.  CURTIS,  A.M. 


HARTFORD,  CONNECTICUT 


KaAov  TO  a.B\ov  koX  17  cXtti?  fjuiyak-q. 

Ph/edo 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


JAN    U    2004 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Ube  Unfcfterbocfiet  press,  'ftew  Borft 


Copyright,  igoi 

BY 

EMILY  CHAUNCEY  CURTIS 


TO  MY  WIFE 

WHOSE  UNSELFISH  AND  DEVOTED   LOVE  HAS  BRIGHTENED   SO  MANY 
YEARS   OF   MY   LIFE 

AND   TO 

William  C.  Gulliver  and  Edward  C.  Bogert 

WHOSE  FRIENDSHIP  AND  GENEROUS  AID  HAVE  BEEN  AN  INSPIRATION 
IN   PREPARING  THIS   WORK 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  AFFECTIONA  TEL  Y 
DEDICA  TED 


THE  IMMORTAL  LIFE 


The  evening  hour  has  come,  the  fainter  light 
Of  closing  day  doth  call  me  to  my  rest. 

The  landscape  darkens  to  my  fading  sight 
And  golden  tints  are  dying  in  the  west. 

Yet  night  uplifts  the  curtain  day  had  drawn, 

To  show  the  stars  and  bring  the  brighter  dawn. 


"  Ethereal  hopes  are  part  and  parcel  of  us." 

Wordsworth. 

"Those  mighty  hopes  that  make  us  men." 

Tennyson. 


PREFACE 

SEVERAL  works  have  recently  been  given 
to  the  public  on  the  subject  of  Man's  Im- 
mortality,— works  of  far  greater  learning  and 
ability  than  the  author  of  this  can  think  of 
claiming.  He  attempts  a  humbler  task, — that 
of  stating,  and,  so  far  as  seems  necessary,  of 
establishing,  certain  facts  which,  taken  in  their 
proper  connection,  may  not  only  warrant  belief 
in  immortality,  but  may  make  the  denial  of  it 
irrational.  The  subject  is  here  treated  induc- 
tively and  on  purely  rational  grounds.  The 
facts  wMch  are  the  basis  of  the  argument  are 
those  which  prove  the  greatness  and  worth  of 
man, — as  seen  in  his  interpretation  of  nature, 
in  the  marvellous  character  of  his  environment, 
and  his  kinship  and  ethical  relation  to  God  as 
the  moral  Governor  of  the  world.  Sometimes 
a  clear  and  consecutive  statement  in  a  court  of 
justice  of  facts  bearing  on  the  case  in  trial,  is 
sufficient  to  determine  the  verdict,  without 
eloquence  or  special  pleading  by  the  counsel, 
the  facts  carrying  with  them  their  own  logic. 


X  Preface 

Of  course,  on  such  a  subject  demonstration, 
as  the  term  is  commonly  used,  is  out  of  the 
question.  We  start  with  tlie  single  assumption, 
now  accepted  universally  as  the  basis  of  all  ] 
(science,  that  the  world  is  rationally  ordered. 
But  this  involves  important  co^rrelative  truths, 
which  must  be  received  with  it,  among  which 
are  the  following  :  First,  a  world  rationally 
ordered  is  ordered  by  a  rational  Intelligence. 
Second,  such  an  Intelligence  as  rational  is  also 
ethical,  holding  as  supreme  and  in  inseparable 
union  righteousness  and  truth,  as  essential  to 
aJrulyj;ationanife.  Third,  m^aTrconstructTve 
work  such  intelligence  has  an  end  in  view,  as 
the  formative  principle  giving  unity  and  mean- 
ing to  the  construction.  Fourth,  a  world  so 
vast  and  complex,  yet  possessing  unity  and 
being  the  work  of  one  holding  truth  and  right 
supreme,  must  not  only  be  consistent  with 
itself,  but  in  harmony  with  the  purpose  of  a 
wise  and  righteous  Creator. 

It  follows  that  the  course  of  nature  cannot 
be  cruel  and  unjust,  as  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  asserts, 
nor  the  enemy  of  righteousness  in  man,  as  Prof. 
Huxley  assumes.  It  is  more  probable  that 
these  distinguished  men  erred  in  their  inter- 
pretation of  some  adverse  appearances  than 
that  the  fact,  universally  acknowledged  and  the 


Preface  xi 

basis  of  all  science,  namely,  that  the  world  is 
rationally  ordered,  must  prove  false.  This 
presumption  is  confirmed  by  two  facts  manifest 
in  the  system  itself.  First,  its  highest  out- 
come, in  which  all  the  cosmic  forces  are  seen 
to  have  been  co-operative,  is  man,  whose 
crowning  endowments,  reason  and  conscience, 
are  plainlvj;i^n2^hjrn_Jo^  attaining, trutk_aad 
righteousness.  Second,  man's  environment,  the 
world  itself,  has  a  rational  and  moral  order  so 
correlated  to  those  endowments  that  to  seek  and 
realize  truth  and  righteousness  should  be  man's 
proper  life.  Hence  a  kingdom  of  righteousness 
is  the  logical  outcome  of  such  a  system. 

Such  is  the  basis  of  our  argument,  to  be 
sustained  in  the  following  discussion.  The 
real  greatness  of  man,  his  ethical  relationship 
to  God  and  his  correlation  to  a  vast  environ- 
ment which  is  a  medium  of  divine  self-revelation 
to  him,  show  that  he  is  made  for  fellowship 
with  God  and  that  his  true  life,  being  a  par- 
ticipation in  the  life  divine,  is  itself  divine,  and 
therefore  immortal.  For  it  is  irrational  to  be- 
lieve that  a  life  that  is  one  with  the  life  of  God 
will  perish. 

A  thorough  discussion  of  the  points  taken 
would  require  far  more  space  than  we  can  here 
give.     But  it  is  hoped  that  even  this  imperfect 


xii  Preface 

presentation  of  the  subject  in  the  following 
discussion  may  confirm  in  some  doubting  and 
troubled  mind  the  conviction  that  the  immor- 
tal life  may  not  only  be  hoped  for,  but  con- 
fidently accepted  as  a  reality  taught  in  the 
order  of  creation,  as  well  as  in  the  written 
word  and  in  harmony  with  all  truth. 

The  writer  is  under  obligation  to  many 
authors,  but  among  them  he  cannot  fail  to 
specify  the  following  :  President  Mark  Hop- 
kins, my  revered  and  beloved  instructor  in 
Williams  College ;  Dr.  Herman  Lotze,  the 
eminent  German  scholar  and  philosopher,  and 
Dr.  James  Martineau,  whose  recent  departure 
from  this  life  has  ended  on  earth  the  fruitful 
labors,  but  not  the  fame,  of  one  of  the  most 
gifted  minds  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

Nothing  in  this  volume  has  been  previously 
given  to  the  public  except  portions  of  the 
chapter  on  "  Man  above  Nature,"  which  was 
published  in  the  Andover  Reviezv,  August,  1 892, 
and  an  essay  on  the  "  Relation  of  Evolution 
to  Christianity,"  published  in  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  September,  1880,  and  soon  after  re- 
published in  an  English  theological  quarterly. 
But  so  far  as  the  contents  of  either  appear  in 
this  volume,  they  are  so  modified  as  scarcely 
to  be  recognized  as  old  acquaintances. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

Introductory  :  The  Form  of  the  Argument       ....         3 


CHAPTER  II 
Man  above  the  Animal,  in  a  Superior  Kingdom        .         .         .       2i 

CHAPTER  III 
Man  above  Nature  .........       39 

CHAPTER  IV 
Man  a  Personality  Belonging  to  the  Spiritual  Kingdom   .         .       61 

CHAPTER  V 
Human  Capacities  Correlated  to  an  Infinite  Environment         .       79 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Proper  Human  Life,  One  with  the  Life  of  God         .         .       99 

CHAPTER  VII 

As  a  Religious  and  Ethical  Being,  Man  Sustains  a  Relationship 

to  God  which  means  Permanence       .         .         .         .         .117 


xiv  Contents 

CHAPTER  VIII 

PAGE 

If  Death  Ends  Man's  Existence,  the  Great  Law  of  his  Life  is 

Nullified  and  the  End  of  his  Existence  is  a  Failure   .         .133 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  Expectation  of  a  Future  Life  Essential  to  Normal  Develop- 
ment and  to  Well-Being  in  the  Present      .         .         .         .153 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Resources  of  Modern  Life  no  Substitute  for  Personal  Re- 
lationship to  God  and  the  Future  Life        .         .         .         .171 

CHAPTER  XI 

Cosmic  Forces  as  Related  to  Man  in  Harmony  with  the  End 

of  his  Creation,  as  Made  for  Righteousness        .         .         .     197 

CHAPTER  XII 
Suffering  in  Men  and  Animals  as  Related  to  Divine  Beneficence,    219 

CHAPTER  XIII 

No  Proof  that  the  Dissolution  of  the  Body  is  the  Extinction  of 

the  Rational  Spirit 241 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Summary  and  Conclusion  .......     261 


THE  IMMORTAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY 

FORM   OF  THE   ARGUMENT 

ALL  the  forms  of  life  known  to  us  are  of 
brief  duration.  Plant,  animal,  and  man 
alike  pass  through  certain  stages  of  growth 
and  development,  but  sooner  or  later  the 
forces  of  dissolution  prevail  over  those  of  life, 
till  functional  action  ceases,  and  death  ensues. 
Accordingly,  for  the  myriads  of  living  creatures 
to  which  the  earth  gives  birth,  it  furnishes 
only  a  grave.  Genera  and  species  continue 
for  longer  periods,  but  the  individual  soon 
perishes.  Germinal  life,  indeed,  passes  over 
from  parent  to  offspring,  but  it  does  not  carry 
forward  the  individual  life.  In  the  succession 
this  disappears  and  is  lost.  Such  is  the  estab- 
lished order  of  Nature.  In  other  words,  death 
stands  over  against  all  individual  life,  by  a  law 
which  is  inevitable  and  universal. 

This  universality  of  death  awakens  serious 

3 


4  The  Immortal  Life 

foreboding  in  many  thoughtful  minds  concern- 
ing their  own  destiny.  Not  a  few  feel  com- 
pelled to  anticipate  complete  extinction  at  the 
touch  of  death.  With  all  their  love  of  life, 
and  their  longing  for  immortality,  they  have 
come  to  look  upon  death  as  the  termination 
of  their  conscious  being.  They  see  no  excep- 
tion to  the  law,  and  no  possible  escape  from 
its  dominion.  If  they  put  the  question  of 
their  immortality  to  science,  they  get  no  as- 
suring response.  They  dare  not  trust  the 
affirmations  of  their  spiritual  nature,  where  all 
evidence  of  life  disappears  with  the  dissolution 
of  the  body.  Willing  or  unwilling,  they  look 
upon  death  as  the  sundering  of  all  ties  of 
affection,  the  blotting  out  of  all  memories,  and 
the  extinction  of  their  conscious  being. 

Now,  aside  from  the  testimony  of  a  special 
revelation,  must  this  conclusion  be  accepted 
as  final  ?  If  science  is  silent,  if  Nature,(m stead 
of  giving  promise  of  a  future  life^  holds  every 
living  creature  subject  to  the  laws  of  death, 
must  not  the  extinction  of  man,  as  of  all 
other  creatures,  be  received  as  the  teaching  of 
Him  who  has  ordered  the  course  of  Nature, 
and  who  speaks  through  her  laws  ?  At  least, 
is^  it  not  so  far  conclusive  as  to  make  incredi- 
ble any  supposed  revelation  to  the  contrary. 


The  Immortal  Life  5 

since  we  are  to  look  for  harmony,  and  not 
for  contradiction,  in  the  totality  of  the  divine 
revelations  ?~^Tn~other  wor3s^  is  the  question 
of  man's  immortality,  as  determined  by  the 
universality  of  death,  to  be  accepted  as  the 
final  word  on  this  subject  ? 

We  do  not  so  believe,  and  we  here  raise  the 
question  whether  the  course  of  Nature,  as  thus 
interpreted  by  the  senses,  is  in  fact  the  ulti- 
mate teaching  of  Nature  herself.  She  certain- 
ly holds  truths  in  her  keeping  which  jhedo^s 

jiot  address  to  the  senses,  but  to  the  rational 
under^gjldiDg',/  and  what  she  communicates 
through  this  medium  often  reverses  their 
testimony.  \  Every  scientist  knows  that  the 
senses  are  not  the  best  interpreters  of  reality. 
To  them  a  straight  line  as  seen  in  the  water 
is  crooked ;  the  sun  rises  and  sets,  moving 
around  the  earth  as  its  centre  ;  wood  consumed 
by  fire  leaves  nothing  but  ashes  ;  and  forms  of 
energy  once  expended,  go  out  of  existence  as 
a  candle  when  its   fuel  is  exhausted.     In  all 

ythese  cases,  and  in  a  thousand  others,  the  truth 
is  exactly  the  reverse  of  the  testimony  of  the^ 

^enses.  We  find,  in  fact,  that  the  most  im- 
portant truths,  those  which  are  the  guide  of 
our  rational  life,  come  into  our  possession  only 
through  the  exercise  of  our  rational  intelligence. 


6  The  Immortal  Life 

Hence,  in  our  quest  of  reality,  we  have  oc- 
casion every  day  to  revise  and  often  to  reverse 
the  testimony  of  the  senses  by  the  superior 
authority  of  the  rational  mind.  The  most  im- 
portant secrets  of  Nature  do  not  lie  on  the  sur- 
face. Our  interpretation  of  phenomena  would 
be  shallow  and  often  false  if  not  corrected  by 
careful  investigation  and  by  the  deeper  insight 
of  the  rational  and  reflective  mind.  Moreover, 
it  is  the  special  function  of  the  rational  intelli- 
gence to  apprehend  principles  and  realities 
that  are  in  their  nature  invisible.  Nor  can  the 
scientist  who  is  true  to  his  calling  refuse  what 
the  understanding  thus  supplies,  since  princi- 
ples never  recognized  by  the  senses  must  enter 
into  all  his  constructive  dealing  with  phenom- 
ena. They,  in  fact,  underly  and  condition  the 
whole  fabric  of  science.  Besides,  Nature_  is 
eve£soliciting  this_dg£^er  interpretatijpn  of  her 
appearances,  giving  hints  of  things  unseen 
[and  disclosing  them  to  the  rational  mind 
only  after  patient  and  searching  inquiry. 
This  is  true  even  in  the  department  of 
physical  sciences,  and  it  is  emphatically  true 
of  the  phenomena  and  laws  of  the  human 
spirit. 

Whatever  our  theory  of  the  origin  of  the 
rational   mind,  whether  by  evolution  from  a 


The  Immortal  Life  7 

lower  order  of  intelligence  or  directly  by  crea- 
tive act,  it  is  certain  that  we  are  qualified  in 
some  way  to  deal  with  supersensjble_realities. 
Such,  in  fact,  is  our_main  vocation,  or  we  fail 
to  realize  the  true  rational  life.  The  physical 
organism  does  not  constitute  the  man,  nor 
does  the  material  world  constitute  the  uni- 
verse. The  orderly  and  harmonious  relations 
that  bind  the  world  together  in  unity, — the 
truth,  beauty,  law,  and  moral  order  we  see  em- 
bodied in  it,  revealing  the  Supreme  Intelli- 
gence that  orders  all, — these  are  the  great 
realities  with  which  we  deal,  as  rational  beings. 
They  constitute  in  fact  our  true  environment 
in  correspondence  with  which  we  may  realize 
a  life  immeasurably  superior  to  that  of  sense 
and  appetite.  The  human  body  is  a  structure 
of  marvellous  grace,  illustrating  the  most  per- 
fect development  reached  in  the  organic  world, 
and  yet  it  is  but  the  instrument  of  the  mind, 
which  is  the  crowning  work  of  creation.  This 
it  is  that  gives  man  his  dignity  and  worth.  It 
is  a  true  saying, — "  On  earth  there  is  nothing 
great  but  rtian  ;  in  man  there^is  nothing  great 
but  mind."/(7yi><^..,  '^cL(uj^,Ch^juti'^  i^o^jftJ^i'c^  j 

Taking  mto  view  man's  rational  endow- 
ments, his  vast  and  magnificent  environment, 
and  his  ethical  relation  to  God,  we  can  but  see 


8  The  Immortal  Life 

his  greatness  and  his  evident  possibiHties  of  a 
Hfe  truly  divine,  and  therefore  immortal.  We 
show  that  man  is,  in  fact,  akin  to  God  in  his 
spiritual  nature,  and  is  capable  of  participation 
in  His  manifold  life,  as  shown  in  the  fact  that 
he  interprets  the  divinejanguage  expressed  in 
the  rational  order  of  the  universe,  and  it  is  un- 
reasonable to  believe  that  a  mind  sustaining 
such  sublime  relations  to  God  and  this  uni- 
verse is  destined  to  come  to  nothing. 

The  facts  on  which  we  base  our  argument 
are  generally  accepted,  but  we  hope  to  make 
them  evident  to  all,  and  thus  to  reach  our  con- 
clusion on  purely  rational  grounds.      But  the 
^Mntj^^^t^^^    /  form  of  our  argument,  strictly  speaking,  proves"\ 
^  I    the  immortality  only  of  those  who  answer  the/ 

/^^    /^     \    endof  theix.  being — that  is,  who  enter  into  their 
/  ^proper   element    in    sharing    the    divine    life 

4^/^-^.   c^^  through  divine  fellowship.     The  immortality 

p^'C'^/uifyC^  of  all  may  doubtless  be  maintained  on  other 
'  grounds.  We  barely  note  here  the  opinions 
thaTliave  been  current  on  this  point.  Some 
afifirm  the  annihilation  of  those  who  refuse 
their  high  privilege  and  their  plain  obligations. 
Others  believe  they  will  have  continuous  exis- 
tehceT^being  subjects  of  moral  government, 
and  that  they  will  be  treated  according  to  their 
deserts.     Others  still  cherish  the  hope  that  all 


The  Immortal  Life  9 

will  ultimately  be  reclaimed  to  righteousness 
tn  a  future  gracious  economy. 
^  That  our  benevolent  Creator  sincerely  de- 
sires the  holiness  and  happiness  of  all,  we  can- 
not doubt.  But  the  ethical  life  requires  as  a 
condition  that  moral  freedom,  or  a  delegated 
sovereignty,  be  entrusted  to  the  subjects  of 
nioraP^government.  Now,  how^  far  any  will 
exercise  that  sovereignty  in  resisting  all  gra- 
cious influence,  no  man  can  determine.  It  does 
not,  therefore,  become  us  to  dogmatize  on  a 
question  of  this  nature.  But  we  may  feel 
assured  that  the  Most  High,  who  has  seen  fit 
in  His  wisdom  and  love  to  create  moral  beings, 
that  He  may  realize  as  the  result  a^_vast  king- 
dom established  in  righteousness — of  _indi- 
viduals  whose  sovereignty  He  will  not  invade, 
will  not  tailTh  His  great  purpose.  ' 

We  assume  that  His  great  object  is  to  estab- 
lish such  a  kingdom,  because,  as  explained  in 
the  Preface,  He  has  ordered  the  world  after  the 
niethods  of  a  Rational_Intelligence.  Such  in- 
tellig^ence.  inTITs  very  nature  loving  truth,  must 
aj^o  lov_e  righteousness,  for  righteousness  is 
the  highest  form  of  truth.  The  truly  rational 
being  is  therefore  an  ethical  being,  holding  in 
supreme  regard  and  in  inseparable  union  both 
truth  and  righteousness.     We  do,  indeed,  ac- 


lo  The  Immortal  Life 

count  men  rational,  though  some  may  disre- 
gard both  truth  and  right ;  still,  so  far  as  they 
thus  pervert  and  debase  their  nature,  they 
practically  disown  it  and  become  irrational  in 
conduct  and  character.  But  this  cannot  be 
true  of  God.  He  who  has  everywhere  em- 
bodied truth  and  moral  order  in  His  creation, 
shows  on  the  broadest  possible  scale  a  char- 
acter in  which  the  love  of  truth  and  ricfht  is 
supreme.  Accordingly,  as  Ruler  of  the  world, 
He  rules  in  the  interest  of  righteousness  ;  and 
in  creating  men  rational  He  endowed  them 
with  precisely  the  powers  that  qualify  them 
for  attaining  a  righteousness  like  His  own.  As 
benevolent.  He  could  bestow  upon  rational 
creatures  no  higher  good.  He  may  have 
peopled  other  worlds  with  beings  more  largely 
endowed,  and  therefore  capable  of  a  deeper 
Ijfe^  but  not  of_one  higher  in_kind.  For  the 
supreme  love  of  truth  and  right,  which  is 
possible  to  man,  is  the  glory  of  God,  and  a 
kingdom  of  rational  beings  in  whom  this  love 
is  supreme  is  an  end  worthy  of  the  All-wise 
Creator.  It  is  an  end  the  highest  possible  to 
conceive.  Such  love  in  man  renders  him  god- 
like in  character.  That  such  is  in  fact  the  end  of 
man's  creation,  we  shall  assume  from  facts  to 
be  established  in  future  discussion.     It  will  be 


The  Immortal  Life  n 

safe  to  conclude  that  a  life  that  is  one  with  the 
life  of  God  is  immortal. 

Our  argument  must,  therefore,  be  jndnrtive 
and  teleological ;  inductive,  as  founded  on  facts 
to  be^established,  and  teleological,  as  showing 
that  the  facts,  if  established,  involve  this 
conclusion. 

Induction  is  the  method  of  science  now 
universally  accepted  as  valid  for  reaching 
those  generalizations  of  phenomena  that  are 
another  name  for  law.  But  teleology  only  a 
few  years  ago,^^  as  a  method  of  interpreting 
nature,  was  thought  by  some  evolutionists  to 
be  out  of  date.  It  was  affirmed,  that,  at  least 
in  the  organic  world,  natural  selection,  which 
was  assumed  to  be  in  large  measure  fortuitous 
in  its  operation,  so  determined  the  course  of 
organic  development  as  to  exclude  all  evidence 
of  purpose  or  design  within  its  range.  This 
method  had,  indeed,  often  been  unwisely  ap- 
plied, but  this  was  not  a  sufficient  reason  for 
banishing  it  as  an  outlaw.  Opinions  have 
changed.  Instead  of  being  sent  into  exile  it 
~ha^  now  cgmejnto^special  favor,  to  be  applied 
freely  on  a  broad  scale.  The  most  eminent 
advocates  of  evolution,  holding  as  firmly  as 
ever  to  natural  selection,  now  use  it  without 
questioning  its  validity  in  the  interpretation 


12  The  Immortal  Life 

y^^^  of  natural  phenomena.     Among  these  are  Dr. 

Q     „  John  Fiske,  Alfred_Russell  Wallace,  and  Pro- 

y^^^i-s**^^ /><^  ^essor^Joseph  j^e  Conte.     Indeed,  to  affirm,  as 
/  .  &very  scientist  must,  that  the  world  is  ration- 

Y  ally  ordered,  and  yet  ordered  for  nojend,  and 
I  by  no  method  for  attaining  an  end,  is  to  affirm 
\a  most  irrational  procedure.  The  fact  now- 
established,  that  the  creation  has  been  histori- 
cally progressive  and  systematic,  its  cosmic 
forces  so  co-ordinated  that  the  whole  move- 
ment has  been  toward  higfher  and  higher 
results,  for  which  previous  conditions  were  the 
evident  preparation,  is  an  object  lesson  on  a 
large  scale,  illustrating  clearly  the  method  of 
teleology,  as  applied  practically  in  the  creative 
work.  Dr.  Weinman  says  :  "  Beyond  the  co- 
operative'Torces~  of  nature,  which  aim  at  a 
purpose,  we  must  admit  of  a  cause,  of  which 
we  can  only  say,  it  is  teleological." — Theory 
of  Descent,  ii..  Sec.  708,  Nor  is  it  presump- 
tion to  think  of  ascertaining  the  end  for  which 
so  vast  and  complex  a  system  and  so  full  of 
mystery  was  created.  We  need  not  know  all 
the  facts  and  processes  of  a  system  to  deter- 
mine its  purpose.  Few  persons  understand  all 
the  machinery  of  a  cotton  or  a  woollen  factory. 
But  they  know  its  end  when  they  see  the 
finished  products  of  its  combined  movements. 


The  Immortal  Life  13 

Many  do  not  understand  the  parts  and  work- 
ing of  a  steam-engine,  but  when  they  see  it 
flying  on  its  iron  track,  taking  freight  and 
passengers  to  their  destination,  they  know  its 
purpose.  So  we  may  know  the  meaning  of 
the  world  when  we  see  the  highest  outcome 
of  all  its  co-ordinated  movements,  "Those 
portions  of  nature,"  says  the  Duke  of  Argyle, 
"  which  are  wholly  dark  to  us,  do  not  neces- 
sarily cast  any  shadow  upon  those  other  por- 
tions which  are  luminous  with  inherent  light. 
The  new  discoveries  which  science  is  ever 
making  of  adjustments  and  combinations,  of 
which  we  had  no  previous  knowledge,  impress 
us  with  the  irresistible  conviction  that  the 
same  relations  to  mind  prevail  throughout. 
It  matters  not  what  may  be  the  philosophy  or 
theology  of  the  inquirer.  Every  step  he  takes 
he  finds  himself  face  to  face  with  facts  he  can- 
not describe  intelligently  to  himself  or  others, 
except  by  referring  them  to  that  function  and 
power  of  mind  which  we  know  as  Purpose  and 
Design," — Reign  of  Law,  p.  36. 

Dr.  John  Fiske  not  only  assumes  an  end  of 
creation,  but  asserts  most  definitely  and  em- 
phatically as  follows  :  "  Man  is  the  terminal 
fact  in  that  stupendous  proof  of  evolution 
whereby  things  have  come  to  be  as  they  are. 


14  The  Immortal  Life 

.  .  .  In  the  deepest  sense  it  is  as  true  as  it 
was  ever  said  to  be,  that  the  world  _:w:aa_„iiiade 
for  man,  and  that  the  bringing  forth  in  him  of 
those  qualities  which  we  call  highesiL-aadJjoli- 
est  is  the  filial  cause  of  creation." — Idea  of 
Uod,  p.  31. 

The  fact  that  the  lower  kingdoms  which  are 
prior  in  the  order  of  time  are  conditional,  each 
of  the  next  succeeding,  and  that  all  are  made 
tributary  to  man,  who  represents  the  last  and 
highest,  fully  warrants  the  conclusion  of  Dr. 
Fiske  that  the  cosmic  progression  toward  man 
as  the  outcome,  through  the  systematic  co- 
ordination of  its  forces,  meant  man  from  the 
beginning  as  "the  final  cause  of  creation." 

It  is  found,  also,  that  those  kingdoms  have 
passed  over  to  the  human  organism  their  most 
advanced  products  for  loyal  service,  under  the 
command  of  man  as  a  rational  being.  Fur- 
thermore, his  supreme  functions,  as  rational, 
are  fulfilled  through  reason  and  conscience  in 
apprehending  and  appropriating  the  True,  the 
Beautiful,  and  the  Good,  as  his  vocation,  and 
thus,  not  merely  in  the  interest  of  science,  but 
as  a  spiritual  being,  to  find  God  in  His  self- 
revelations  and  to  enter  into  His  manifold  life. 
All  the  kingdoms  of  Nature,  are  therefore, 
plainly  tributary  to  man,  that  he   may  make 


The  Immortal  Life  15 

his  Hfe  divine.  No  higher  good  than  this 
can  man  receive  or  God  bestow.  This  seems 
not  only  a  worthy  end,  but  the  actual  end, 
toward  which  the  creation  has  for  ages  been 
moving. 

We  do  not,  of  course,  claim  that  the  whole 
creation  is  ordered  exclusively  for  man.  We 
see  countless  worlds  in  space,  far  greater  than 
our  earth,  many  of  which  are  doubtless  to  sus- 
tain some  forms  of  life.  Organized  life  is 
higher  in  the  scale  of  being  than  inorganized 
matter,  and  this  world  teems  with  many  grades 
of  life — from  the  microscopic  cell  to  animal  and 
man.  By  the  spectroscope  we  learn  that  the 
far-off  stellar  worlds  are  constituted  of  the 
same  materials  as  our  earth,  and  they  are 
governed  by  the  same  general  laws.  It  is 
natural  to  conclude  that  many  of  them,  at  least, 
and  as  many  as  possible,  will  be  inhabited  by 
creatures  possessing  similar  life. 

But  since  we  can  conceive  no  higher  order 
of  life  than  the  rational,  the  personal,  and 
spiritual,  and  since  men  are  capable  of  this, 
the  inhabitants  of  other  worlds,  though  they 
may  far  surpass  men  in  the  measure  of  their 
endowments,  cannot  possess  a  life  higher  in 
kind.  This  earth  is  the  nursery  of  that  life 
which  is  spiritual  and  divine,  and  we  may  well 


1 6  The  Immortal  Life 

conjecture  that  from  countless  worlds  may  be 
gathered  a  vast  spiritual  kingdom  possessing 
the  same  generic  and  divine  life,  but  with  in- 
finite variations,  all  moving  in  harmony  under 
the  law  of  love,  as  the  stellar  worlds  move 
under  the  law  of  gravity  :  But  moral  beings 
may  reflect  the  glory  of  God  with  a  radiance 
far  surpassing  all  material  splendors. 

Respecting  other  worlds  we  can  only  con- 
jecture, but  since  the  Most  High  has  bestowed 
upon  man  Godlike  powers  for  attaining  Godlike 
excellence,  we  cannot  well  suppose  that  His 
infinite  love,  which  embraces  all  worlds,  has 
limited  His  bestowments  of  good  to  our  race. 
Worlds  of  matter  cannot  be  the  objects  of  His 
love,  except  as  the  conditions  of  life  having 
value.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
He  was  content  to  create  so  many  worlds,  and 
systems  of  worlds,  of  mere  dead  matter,  totally 
unresponsive,  with  which  He  could  have  no 
converse,  and  which  He  could  not  love  or  value, 
except  as  means  for  a  life  of  intrinsic  worth. 

Here  we  find  a  world  that  for  ages  has 
been  preparing  for  man  as  a  creature  who  can 
respojid.  to  the  Creator,  with  some  apprecia- 
tion__ of  His  character  and  work,  and  in 
sympathy^with  His  manifold  life.  Such  life, 
truly  divine   in  man,  is  a  worthy  ^nd  oT~crea- 


The  Immortal  Life  17 

tion,and  is  the  normal  outcome  of  his  spiritual 
nature  as  correlated  to  his  spiritual  environ- 
ment. It  must  be  of  more  worth  in  the  esti- 
mation of  God  than  all  the  material  worlds. 
As  the  true  and  final  end  of  His  creative  work, 
it  is  preposterous  to  suppose  that,  after  mill- 
ions of  years  of  such  preparation  for  it.  He 
will,  when  at  lastiFls~reached,  put  it  out  of 
existence^ag^fjio  value.  It  would  contradict 
the  rational  meaning  of  the  whole  cosmic  pro- 
gression. Accordingly,  we  find  the  promise 
of  immortality  in  man's  high  place  in  nature 
as  not  only  above  all  animal  life,  but  in  the 
spiritual  kingdom  above  nature,  in  his  capacity 
for  the  infinite  set  in  intelligent  relationship  to 
avast  environment  of  rational  and  moral  order 
and  to  the  Infinite  Intelligence,  who  has  made 
that  order  a  medium  at  once  of  His  self-revela- 
tion to  man  for  his  fellowship  and  for  enlar- 
ging and  educating  the  human  powers  for 
attaining  a  corresponding  divine  life. 

It  will  also  be  shown  that  this  conscious 
ethical  relationship  to  God,  and  the  expecta- 
tion of  a  future  life  as  a  reality,  are  essential  to 
the  normal  development  and  well-being  of 
man  in  his  present  state,  and  that  the  multi- 
plied resources  of  modern  life  can  by  no  means 
be  a  substitute  for  them. 


1 8  The  Immortal  Life 

In  the  above  facts,  and  others  which  we 
hope  to  estabHsh,  together  with  the  absence 
of  any  proof  that  the  death  of  the  body  ends 
the  Hfe  of  the  spirit,  we  find  ample  evidence 
on  rational  grounds  of  the  life  immortal. 


MAN    ABOVE    THE    ANIMAL    IN    A 
SUPERIOR  KINGDOM 

"  We,  like  all  other  living  creatures,  have  part  in  pain  and  pleasure 
in  a  natural  impulse  to  seek  the  one  and  avoid  the  other.  But  the 
self-judffinp;  conscience  and  the  ineradicable  idea  of  binding  duty 
which  in  us  accompanies  action  and  feeling,  distinguish  human  crea- 
tures as  members  of  a  realm  of  mind  from  brutes  whose  vital  activity 
depends  upon  feeling." 

Dr.  Lotze,  Microcosmos,  ii.,  p.  714. 

"  Pronaque  quum  spectent  animalis  citera  terram, 
Os  homini  sublime  dedit  coelumque  tueri 
Jussit  et  erectas  ad  sidera  tollere  vultus." 

Ovid, 


19 


CHAPTER  II 

MAN   ABOVE  THE  ANIMAL  IN  A 
SUPERIOR  KINGDOM. 

OOME  eminent  scientists  have  denied  to 
^  man  his  place  in  a  distinct  kingdom  above 
the  animal.  Professor  Huxley  says  :  "  Bone  for 
bone,  muscle  for  muscle,  nerve  for  nerve,  man 
corresponds  to  the  highest  animal  organism, 
the  anthropoid  ape."  For  this  reason  he  de- 
termines his  place  in  the  animal  kingdom. 
All  agree  that  man  has  the  animal  nature,  but 
has  he  not  also  a  higher  nature  which  dis- 
tinguishes him  as  man  and  which  should  de- 
termine his  classification  ?  If  he  is  an  animal 
merely,  he  has  the  destiny  of  the  animal,  so 
that  his  classification  is  a  matter  of  importance. 
Those  who  relegate  man  to  the  animal  king- 
dom determine  his  place  as  specialists,  basing 
their  classification  upon  the  tests  applicable 
to  their  particular  science  and  overlooking 
those  characteristics  that  distinguish  him  from 
creatures  of  a  lower  rank.     As  an  anatomist. 


2  2  The  Immortal  Life 

Professor  Huxley  may  have  made  a  correct 
classification,  basing  it  upon  structural  forma- 
tion, "bone  for  bone,  muscle  for  muscle,  and 
nerve  for  nerve"  in  man  corresponding  more  or 
less  closely  with  the  structure  of  the  anthropoid 
ape.  Moreover,  he  would  doubtless  claim 
that  evolution,  as  working  gradual  modifica- 
tions in  organic  structures,  eliminates  the  dis- 
tinction of  species  altogether,  so  that  man  is 
not  distinct,  even  as  a  species,  from  the 
ape.  However  this  may  be,  there  are  con- 
clusive reasons  for  asserting  that  the  evolu- 
tionary process  does  not  abolish  the  distinction 
of  kingdoms,  since  they  have  a  permanent 
place  in  nature.  In  the  progression  from 
plane  to  plane,  we  find  the  sudden  incoming  of 
new  forms  of  energy,  and  higher  principles 
of  life  establishing  distinct  economies  under 
superior  law.  These  transitions  are  not  by 
slight  modifications  on  the  same  line  of  de- 
velopment, but  they  present  an  entirely  new 
order  of  phenomena,  ruled  by  a  superior  form 
of  energy.  We  do  not  question  the  continuity 
of  the  evolutionary  process,  but  this  continuity 
is  apparently  effected  by  the  new  and  higher 
agency  from  above  and  not  by  potencies  pre- 
viously existing  below.  Each  plane  has  its 
own  ruling  energy,  which  not  only  determines 


The  Immortal  Life  23 

the  character  of  its  own  phenomena,  but  subor- 
dinates and  overrules  all  processes  from  below 
for  the  higher  ends  of  its  own  plane.  Accord- 
ingly, the  ascent  of  the  physical  elements  to  the 
plane  above  is  not  gradual,  but  with  the  sud- 
denness of  a  flash  of  light,  by  the  agency  of  the 
chemical  energy  which  seizes  upon  the  physical 
elements  and  imposes  upon  them  its  own  law 
of  affinity.  The  transition  from  the  chemical 
to  the  vegetal  plane  is  also  effected  by  a  higher 
form  of  energy,  which  introduces  and  rules  a 
new  order  of  phenomena — those  of  organic  life. 
In  like  manner,  the  ascent  from  vegetal  to 
animal,  and  from  animal  to  rational,  life,  is 
through  the  incoming  of  higher  principles  of 
life,  each  establishing  a  new  order  of  phe- 
nomena and  overruling,  under  a  new  regime^ 
the  forces  and  products  represented  in  the 
organism  from  the  planes  below. 

Furthermore,  let  it  be  noted,  that  as  these 
forces  and  products  from  below  are  taken  up 
as  factors  in  the  higher  planes,  they  retain  their 
peculiar  functions  and  their  relative  rank. 
When  incorporated  into  the  higher  organic 
unity  they  are  not  merged  or  lost.  In  fact,  it 
is  their  ascent  through  all  the  planes,  keeping 
to  their  own  functions  and  rank,  that  illustrates 
the  continuity  of  the  upbuilding  process.      Of 


24  The  Immortal  Life 

course,  there  could  be  no  continuity  of  the 
higher  principles  and  energies  unless,  poten- 
tially at  least,  they  existed  from  the  first. 

In  any  case,  the  continuity  of  the  upbuild- 
ing process  does  not  exclude  sudden  transi- 
tions and  the  establishment  of  entirely  new 
regimes  as  new  and  higher  forms  of  energy 
put  in  appearance. 

This  brings  us  to  speak  of  the  origin,  num- 
ber, and  rank  of  the  several  kingdoms  which 
belong  to  the  permanent  order  of  nature. 

What  is  this  principle,  or  law,  and  how  does 
it  originate  and  determine  the  number  and 
rank  of  the  several  kingdoms  ? 

Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  defines  it  as  "The  law 
of  the  conditioning  and  the  conditioned."  It 
may  be  interpreted  as  follows :  When  one 
form  of  energy  is  conditioned  by  others  and 
at  the  same  time  overrules  and  subordinates 
them  in  establishing  a  new  order  of  phenom- 
ena under  a  higher  law,  it  proves  the  superior 
in  rank  and  the  founder  of  a  new  kingdom. 
Thus  vegetal  life  is  seen  to  be  conditioned  by 
the  forces  and  products  of  the  physical  and 
chemical  planes,  and  also  that  it  appropriates 
and  overrules  both  under  a  higher  law  in  the 
upbuilding  of  living  organisms.  Animal  life 
also  shows  its  superiority  to  vegetal  life,  and 


The  Immortal  Life  25 

rational,  in  like  manner,  to  animal  life,  by  sub- 
ordinating and  overruling  all  the  forces  and 
principles  below  represented  in  the  organism 
under  a  higher  economy.  Accordingly,  we  find 
in  organic  life  regular  gradations  of  rank,  that 
the  elements  and  principles  of  the  lower  planes 
are  taken  up  into  the  higher  to  be  subordi- 
nated and  overruled  for  their  higher  ends 
under  the  law  of  a  higher  economy.  The  last 
and  highest  form  of  energy,  with  its  superior 
principle  of  life,  that  has  appeared  is  the^  ra- 
tionaly  as  seen  \nman.  It  is  the  kingly  energy, 
and  in  the  divine  economy  it  has,  by  organic 
law,  the  prerogative  to  subordinate  and  over- 
rule the  forces  and  principles  of  all  the  planes 
below  incorporated  in  the  human  organism  for 
the  ends  of  rational  life.  Thus,  "  the  law  of 
the  conditioning  and  the  conditioned,"  or,  as 
we  prefer  to  express  it,  the  priiiciple  of  subor- 
dmation,  runs  up  through  all  the  planes,  giv- 
ing to  each  form  of  energy  in  the  advance  the 
command  of  all  below,  and  placing  man  at  the 
head  of  all,  with  prescriptive  right  to  command 
all  for  rational  ends.  It  is  the  same  principle 
that  organizes  an  army — with  its  companies, 
regiments,  and  higher  divisions — and  puts  the 
general-in-chief  in  command  of  all.  It  is  at 
once  the  principle  of  division  and  of  unity.     It 


26  The  Immortal  Life 

creates  the  distinctions  of  rank  and  at  the 
same  time  unites  all  into  one  body  under  one 
head.  The  unity  of  the  human  organism  is  the 
most  complete  of  any  that  we  know,  and  yet  it  is 
the  most  complex,  the  forces  and  products  of  all 
the  kingdoms  being  marvellously  incorporated 
in  it.  The  physical,  the  chemical,  the  vegetal, 
and  the  animal  are  all  represented  in  man,  and 
the  gradations  from  lowest  to  highest  are 
strictly  conserved  and  belong  to  the  perma- 
nent order  of  nature.  The  chemist  and  the 
physiologist  recognize  all  and  each  in  its  place. 
Of  course,  in  a  unity  so  compact  and  complex, 
the  dividingHnes^are  not  Jo  be  recognized  by 
the  senses.  Vegetal  life  in  certain  forms  is 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  lowest  forms 
of  animal  life,  as  animal  life  in  its  highest  de- 
velopment seems  almost  identical  with  the 
lowest  specimens  of  rational  life.  For  this 
reason  some  have  assumed  that  the  higher 
kingdoms  are  but  modifications  of  the  lower, 
by  a  process  of  development.  However  this 
may  be,  it  is  certain  that  each  kingdom  in  the 
advance  reveals  an_entirelv  different^. form  of 
enfiigy  and  the  inauguration  of  a  new  and  dis- 
tinct  economy  of  a  superior  order,  subordinat- 
ing all  below  to  its  higher  end.  This  is  the 
proper  test  of  a  distinct  kingdom   in   nature. 


The  Immortal  Life  27 

It  applies  to  each  kingdom  in  the  advance — 
the  chemical,  vegetal,  animj.1,  and  rational — 
and  no  modifications,  by  development  or  other- 
wise, abolish  these  fundamental  distinctions. 
As  the  divisions  of  an  army  remain  distinct, 
each  under  its  own  head,  when  brought  to- 
gether into  corporate  unity  under  the  common 
head,  so  the  elements  and  forces  of  the  lower 
planes  retain  their  rank  and  functions  when 
incorporated  into  the  unity  of  the  human  or- 
ganism. There  is  no  breaking  of  ranks,  no 
conglomerate  mixture  of  elements  and  princi- 
ples, whether  the  unity  be  brought  about  by 
continuous  development  from  below  or  by  the 
accession  of  new  principles  and  forms  of  en- 
ergy from  above.  Atoms  seem  to  have  their 
inherent  affinities  and  to  take  the  first  step 
upward  into  molecules  and  chemical  combina- 
tions by  virtue  of  such  affinities.  But  beyond 
this,  science  cannot  at  present  afifirm.  Dead 
matter  is  not  yet  proved  to  become  living  by 
any  inherent  potency  of  its  own.  It  must  first 
be  touched  by  the  life-principle  already  exist- 
ing. Who  can  tell  whether,  in  the  original 
progression  of  world-building,  the  higher 
forms  of  energy  and  of  life  were  derived  from 
the  lower  by  transmutation  and  development, 
or  whether  the  ascent  from  plane  to  plane  was 


28  The  Immortal  Life 

effected  by  the  sudden  incoming  and  agency, 
in  fitting  conditions,  of  new  principles  and  laws 
from  above  ? 

But  it  is  certain  that,  by  some  agency,  the 
progression  has  been  carried  forward  to  higher 
stages  only  as  new  and  higher  forms  of  energy 
have  put  in  appearance,  and,  furthermore,  in 
the  advance  to  the  higher  forms  of  life  and 
unity,  the  gradations  of  rank  have  been  uni- 
formly conserved  by  the  principle  of  subordi- 
nation that  runs  through  the  whole  economy 
of  organic  life. 

It  is,  therefore,  by  organic  law  that  the  dis- 
tinction of  kingdoms  exists,  and  also  their 
unity  in  man  ;  while,  as  possessing  the  high- 
est form  of  energy  and  giving  law  to  a  new 
order  of  phenomena  —  that  of  rational  life  — 
he  has  also  the  prerogative  to  subordinate  and 
overrule  all  the  forces  of  his  organism  for  the 
higher  ends  of  rational  life.  Hence,  he  sup- 
plies all  the  tests  which  determine  his  place  in 
a  distinct  and  superior  kingdom.  No  lower 
grade  of  energy  or  of  life  can  lawfully  break 
in  upon  the  established  order.  If  the  animal 
in  man  assumes  command,  it  is  by  usurpation. 
All  are  important  factors  in  the  human  life  and 
have  their  rights,  but  only  as  they  keep  their 
place  and   fulfil   their  subordinate    functions. 


The  Immortal  Life  29 

Professor  Joseph_Le__Conte,  a  distinguished 
evolutionist  and  scientist,  makes  the  same 
classification  of  the  grades  of  energy,  reckon- 
ing five  distinct  kingdoms  ;  and  he  also  recog- 
nizes the  sudden  transidons  or  "lea^s/'  as  he 
terms  them,  from  lower  to  higher  planes  as 
higher  forms  of  energy  appear  and  inaugurate 
a  superior  kingdom. 

We  repeat  here  the  decisive  tests  of  a  new 
and  superior  kingdom — namely,  a  higher  form 
of  energy  ruling  a  new  order  of  phenomena 
and  subordinating  all  inferior  forces  and  prin- 
ciples to  the  end  of  a  higher  economy.  Now, 
the  transition  or  the  departure  at  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  kingdom  of  rational  life  is  im- 
measurably greater  than  that  of  any  kingdom 
below.  On  this  point  Dr.  Joh-Q_Jiske,  an 
evolutionist,  says  :  "  Through  those  co-opera- 
tive processes  the  differences  between  man 
and  all  other  creatures  has  come  to  be  a  dif- 
f  ere  nee  injdad^  transcending  all  other  differ- 
ences."— Idea  of  God,  p.  162. 

Professor  Huxley,  in  relegating  man  to  the 
animal  kingdom,  on  the  basis  of  anatomical 
structure  merely,  overlooks  these  fundamental 
differe7tces  and  takes  no  account  of  what  char- 
acterizes man  as  man  in  the  totality  of  his 
being.     In  such  a  classification  he  may  have 


30  The  Immortal  Life 

been  true  to  his  knowledge  of  anatomy,  but 
he  was  false  to  any  proper  estimate  of  man  as 
man.  It  is  Nature's  method  of  continuity  to 
take  the  physical  elements  and  the  lower  forms 
of  energy  above  their  own  level,  to  co-operate 
with  their  superiors,  on  all  the  higher  planes. 
But  in  this  co-operation  they  do  not  break 
rank,  and  are  kept  faithful  to  their  appropriate 
functions.  They  do  not  give  to  man  his  distinc- 
tive character,  and  it  is  contrary  to  both  science 
and  common  sense  for  them  to  be  the  basis 
of  classification.  For  example,  the  vegetal 
principle  which  is  incorporated  into  the  human 
■organism  does  not  make  rnan^  vegetable,  nor 
does  the  animal  nature  which  he  inherits  con- 
stituteTTTm  an  animal.  The  highest  principle 
belonging  to  an  organism^nojt  the  lowest;>  de- 
termines its  character  as  a  unity,  and  it  should 


determine  its  proper  classification.  The  chem- 
isT^douBHessliriHs^iirthe^riy-fish,  on  analysis, 
the  same  elements  that  he  finds  in  the  human 
body — carbon  for  carbon,  oxygen  for  oxygen, 
nitrogen  for  nitrogen,  but  would  Professor 
Huxleyas^a  chemist^prov\o\inc&  man  a  jelly-fish  ? 
Why  should  he  not,  when,  as  an  anatomist,  he 
puts  man  in  the  category  of  animals  because  he 
finds  him  "bone  for  bone,  muscle  for  muscle, 
nerve   for  nerve,"  corresponding   to   the   an- 


The  Immortal  Life  31 

thropoid  ape  ?  The  distinctive  character  of 
man  as  a  totaHty  is  determined  by  his  rational 
and  not  by  his  animal  nature.  He  should, 
therefore,  be  ranked  as  man  and  not  as  an 
animal. 

Each  kingdom  has  its  distinctive  character, 
though  all  are  brought  into  a  compact  and 
marvellous  unity  in  man.  The  transition  from 
one  to  the  other  through  the  whole  ascent  is 
still  a  mystery.  Eminent  scientists  have  at- 
tempted in  vain  to  bridge  the  chasm  between 
non-living  and  living  matter  by  natural  law. 
The  same  mystery  meets  us  at  every  succeed- 
ing plane.  Who  has  explained  the  origin  of  the 
sentient  principle  ^^jipf  the  animal  or  of  the  ra- 
tionaljntelligence  ?  Each  of  these  marks  the 
beginning  of  a  distinct  kingdom  and  gives  it 
its  peculiar  character.  Was  each  originally 
derived  from  a  lower  principle  by  develop- 
ment ?  If  so,  why  the  sudden  transition  and 
"  leap  "  upward,  as  Professor  Le  Conte  terms  it, 
and  a  departure  on  a  new  line  of  development 
under  a  higher  law  at  the  very  start  ?  Does 
the  development  theory,  as  defined,  account  for 
this  sudden  change  to  a  new  economy  ?  Does 
it  account  for  the  incoming  of  a  new  principle 
by  any  natural  law  yet  discovered  ? 

Dr.  Caird,  in  speaking  of  continuous  iden- 


32  The  Immortal  Life 

tity  in  the  course  of  development,  says  :  "  The 
identity  of  a  being  that  lives  and  develops  is 
shown,  above  all,  in  the  fact  that,  though  it  is 
continually  changing  its  whole  nature,  yet 
nothing  absolutely  new  is  introduced  into  it." 
— Evolution  of  Religion,  ii.,  p.  149. 

Professor  Tiele  says:  "The  object  under- 
going development  is  a  unity.  The  oak  already 
exists  in  the  acorn." — Elements  of  the  Science 
of  Religion,  p.  30.  Professor  Le  Conte  thus 
defines  it  :  "  It  is  a  continuous,  progressive 
change  according  to  certain  laws  and  by 
means  of  resident  forces." — Relation  of  Evolu- 
tion to  Religion  (last  chapter).  Herbert 
Spencer  regards  evolution  or  some  form  of 
development  as  the  method  of  all  change  and 
constructive  movement  in  the  cosmic  system, 
beginning  with  the  diffused  nebulous  atoms  or 
the  chaotic  "fire-mist." 

We  offer  no  criticism  on  the  use  of  the  term 
evolution,  as  vaguely  used  to  cover  all  cosmic 
changes.  But  as  evolution  implies  a  previous 
involution,  so  development  implies  the_unfpld- 
ihg  of  sometlnn^_already_potentially_^>ds^^ 
And  since,  according  to  the  accepted  meaning 
of  these  terms,  nothing  absolutely  new  is  added 
in  the  unfolding  or  evolutionary  process,  we 
are  to  infer  that  the  existingr  Universe,  as  we 


The  Immortal  Life  33 

find  it,  organic  and  inorganic,  sentient  or  in- 
telligent, existed  potentially  in  the  diffused 
chaotic  fire-mist.  But  whence  the  fire-mist  ? 
Was  it  also  derived  from  some  ethereal  element, 
and  this  from  something  else,  more  elementary 
still,  or  are  we  to  regard  it  as  the  ashes  of  ex- 
tinct worlds,  that  had  had  their  day  and  their 
history  and  bequeathed  to  us  the  fire-mist  as 
their  last  will  and  testament,  as  material  for 
another  cosmic  reconstruction  ?  These  are 
but  fanciful  conjectures,  and  scientists  are 
assuming  that  evolution,  or  development,  be- 
gan with  atoms  in  their  diffused  chaotic  state. 
But  ajtorn^  have  their  likes  and  disljkes,  their  ^Z^2^y^_. 
repulsions  and  affinities,  which  play  an  impor- 
tant part,  not  only  in  laying  the  world's  foun- 
dations, but  in  its  superstructure,  in  its  style  of 
architecture,  and  in  all  the  structures  of  organic 
life.  In  fact,  they  are  so  exactly  suited  to 
these  purposes  that  Herschel,  Clerk  Maxwell, 
and  the  authors  of  the  Unseen  Universe  see  in 
them  all  the  marks  of  "  manufactured  articles." 
sporadic  in  their  origin^y  creative  act. 

Now,  whether  they  are  a  legacy  from  extinct     (jJiyn,^ 

worlds  or  came  into  being  directly  by  creative 

,act,  in  either  case  their  perfect  fitness  for  cos- 

mjc  upbuildin.g_stamps_them  as  the  product  of 

^creative  irvteliigeftce.      If   these  creative  acts 


34  The  Immortal  Life 

were  put  forth  at  the  beginning,  can  we  assume 
that  the  Most  High  then  laid  aside  His  creative 
power  to  engage  in  merely  constructive  and 
evolutionary  processes,  carried  forward  accord- 
ing to  the  strict  regime  of  natural  law  ?  This 
can  be  assumed  safely  when  all  the  processes 
of  upbuilding  can  thus  be  accounted  for.  But 
it  is  now  understood  that,  instead  of  acting  on 
the  world  from  without,  God  is  immanent  injt 
as  its  operative  energy.  May  He  not  be  im- 
manent in  it  as  a  creative  as  well  as  a  con- 
structive power,  especially  at  those  stages  of 
advance  where  new  forms  of  energy  appear, 
and  sudden  transitions  and  departures  to  higher 
economies  mark  the  inauguration  of  new  and 
higher  kingdoms  ? 

These  inquiries  are  suggested  by  the  fact 
that  atoms  and  molecules  are  not  known  to 
possess  the  potency,  by  any  combination  or 
transmutation,  to  originate  even  the  lowest 
forma  of  life.  What  shall  we  think,  then,  of 
iEhelr^sumed  potency  to  originate  reason  and 
conscience  and  the  spiritual  and  divine  life  in 
the  human  soul?  Has  nothing  absolutely 
newLjmd^dififirentJnJ^ind  come  into  being 
since  the  fire-mist^jDegan  its  spiral  movement  ? 
Why  may  not  the  immanent  divine  energy  be 
creative  as  well  as  constructive,  in  the  origina- 


The  Immortal  Life  35 

tion  of  the  great  kingdoms  of  Hfe,  as  well  as 
in  the  production  of  atoms  and  molecules  ? 
We  do  not  presume  to  answer  these  questions. 
The  point  on  which  we  here  insist  is  that, 
whatever  the  agency,  or  the  method,  of  the 
cosmic  upbuilding,  there  is,  as  a  permanent 
order  in  nature,  a  succession  of  kingdoms  of 
ascending  grades  ;  the  lower  conditioning  the 
higher,  and  the  higher  subordinating  and  over- 
ruling the  lower.  Each  has  its  own  ruling 
energy,  and  its  distinctive  character.  The 
same  tests  that  determine  the  number  and 
rank  of  the  several  kingdoms  assign  to  man 
his  place  in  a  kingdom  of  his  own,  and  give 
him  the  prerogative,  as  rational,  to  command 
them  all,  as  incorporated  in  his  organism.  He 
possesses  an  anjmaL  nature,  but  he  proves  his 
superior  rank  by  the  divine  commission  given 
him  to_sub]£ct  and  overrule  the  animal  in 
him,  in  tTie  interest  of  the  jnai^.  If  he  allows 
the  animal  to  get  the  upper  hand  he  is  false 
to  his  prerogative  and  disowns  his  proper 
nature. 


MAN  ABOVE  NATURE 

"  Man  rises  out  of  Nature  and  has  to  assert  his  infinite  superiority 
Qi£^  it." 

Professor  Seth,  Studies  of  Ethical  Principles,  p.  190. 

",Know  man  hath  all  which  nature  hath,  and  more, 

And  in  that  more  lie  all  his  hopes  of  good  : 

Man  must  begin,  know  this,  where  Nature  ends. 

Nature  and  man  can  never  be  fast  friends, 
Fool,  if  thou  canst  not  pass  her,  rest,  her  slave." 

Matthew  Arnold. 


37 


CHAPTER  III 

MAN  ABOVE  NATURE 

O  Y  the  term  Nature,  we  mean  the  established 
*— '  order  of  things  instituted  by  the  Creator 
and  carried  forward  by  his  immanent  energy. 
This  energy  is  revealed  in  different  orders  of 
phenomena  that  take  the  form  of  uniform  law. 
Those  who  recognize  only  matter  and  force  as 
factors  in  the  world's  evolution,  setting  aside 
the  creative  energy,  still  have  common  ground 
with  us  in  the  uniformities  of  Nature  for  de- 
termining whether  given  phenomena  do,  or 
do  not,  come  under  natural  law.  It  is  ad- 
mitted that  the  reign  of  law  is  universal,  but 
not  the  reign  of  natural  law,  since  there  may 
be  a  kingdom  in  which  neither  the  divine 
energy  nor  impersonal  forces  are  the  sole 
factors.  The  lower  kingdoms,  of  course,  be- 
long to  the  domain  of  Nature  and  man  is 
grounded  in  and  conditioned  by  it.  In  fact, 
the  elements  and  forces  of  those  kingdoms  are 
incorporated  into  his  organism,  carrying  with 

39 


40  The  Immortal  Life 

them  their  own  rdgime.  It  is  not  strange, 
therefore,  that  some  scientists,  in  their  fond- 
ness for  broad  generaUzations,  have  assumed 
the  universaHty  of  Nature  and  excluded  the 
supernatural,  not  only  from  man,  but  from  the 
universe.  But  while  the  natural  economy  is 
represented  in  the  human  organism  we  hope 
to  show  that  within  a  given  sphere  of  his  ac- 
tivities, man  is  qualified  to  put  forth  action 
under  a  higher  than  the  natural  law,  and,  in 
the  proper  sense,  S2i^ernatzi7^al. 

Our  proof  shall  not  rest  altogether  upon 
consciousness,  as  its  validity,  without  other 
support,  may  be  questioned.  We  accordingly 
approach  consciousness,  from  below,  or  from 
the  natural  order,  to  the  point  where  man  puts 
in  appearance  and  is  evidently  commissioned 
to  take  up  and  carry  forward  that  order  by 
the  exercise  of  functions  not  before  existing, 
which  involve  responsibility  under  ethical  law, 
and  therefore  freedom  from  bondaofe  to  Nature. 

The  entrance  of  man  upon  the  world's  stage 
was  evidently  after  the  physical,  chemical, 
vegetal,  and  animal  kingdoms  had  prepared 
the  way  for  his  appearance.  There  had  been 
an  orderly  system  of  upbuilding,  for  there  was 
brought  into  being  not  merely  a  suspicion  of 
kingdoms,  but  of  kingdoms  rising  in  rank,  the 


The  Immortal  Life  41 

one  above  the  other,  the  lower  conditioning 
the  higher,  and  the  higher  subordinating  and 
overruHng  the  lower  under  a  superior  law. 
Thus  the  principle  of  subordination  runs 
through  all  the  kingdoms,  giving  them  unity 
like  that  of  a  well-organized  army,  all  the 
lower  in  regular  graduation  coming  under  the 
command  of  the  highest.  Finally^_man  ap- 
pears, conditioned  by  all  below  and  subordinat- 
ing all  to  his  superior  command. 

The  creation  of  the  world,  as  we  find  it,  was 
not  instantaneous,  as  was  once  supposed,  but 
progressive,  through  long  periods  of  time.  It 
is  plain,  too,  that  in  the  ascent  from  kingdom 
to  kingdom,  higher  and  higher  grades  and 
functions  of  matter  and  energy  came  into 
operation  as  factors  in  the  upbuilding  process, 
carrying  the  progression  up  to  higher  and 
higher  planes.  Each  plane  in  the  succession 
is  inaugurated  and  ruled  by  a  new  and  higher 
form  of  energy,  which  subordinates  and  over- 
rules all  below.  Consequently,  there  has  been 
a  growing  complexity  of  forces  and  products, 
and  the  attainment  of  a  higher  order  of  unity 
at  each  stage  of  advance.  These  complex  and 
progressive  movements,  of  course,  hold  in  their 
keeping  mysteries  not  yet  solved.  But  there 
are  certain  facts  and  principles  of  order  open 


42  The  Immortal  Life 

to  our  inspection  that  give  a  clue  to  man's 
place  in  the  system,  and  show  the  grounds  of 
his  superiority  to  all  the  kingdoms  below,  and 
even  to  Nature,  as  the  term  is  understood. 

Now,  the  principle  of  subordination,  which 
subjects  the  lower  to  the  higher,  and  all  to  the 
highest,  places  man  at  the  head  of  all  the  king- 
doms ;  and  as  he  possesses  the  highest  form  of 
energy,  which  is  the  ratio?ial,  he  has  by  organic 
law  the  prerogative  to  subordinate  and  com- 
mand all  the  forces  represented  in  his  organism. 
No  higher  form  of  energy  has  appeared,  and 
the  combined  forces  of  Nature,  as  represented 
and  incorporated  in  his  organism  are  com- 
mitted to  him  for  direction  and  command 
under  the  supreme  law  of  rational  life. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  man  is 
the  goal  of  Nature.  Dr.  Fiske,  as  already 
quoFed,  says  :  "  The  world  was  made  for  man." 
Professor  Le  Conte,  in  the  last  chapter  of 
HTs  work  on  evolution,  expresses  the  convic- 
tion that  the  evolution  of  organic  forms  has 
reached  its  consummation  in  man,  and  that 
future  progress  is  to  be  in  the  development  of 
the  higher  psychical  life  upon  which  he  has 
already  entered.  This  being  true,  a  turning- 
point  of  great  importance  has  been  reached  in 
the  transition  from  animal  to  rational  life,  the 


The  Immortal  Life  43 

life  that  does  not  centre  in  the  physical  organ- 
ism, but  in  the  interests  of  a  higher  realm. 

We  are  now  to  examine  the  law  of  this 
higher  kingdom,  to  show  that  it  differs 
materially  from  natural  law,  and  that  the 
functions  by  which  it  is  administered  involve 
an  agency  above  that  of  Nature. 

It  will  be  admitted  by  all  that  the  supreme 
law  of  rational  life  is  that  which  is  regulative 
and  sovereign  over  all  the  principles  of  human 
action.  As  conscience  is  this  regulative  prin- 
ciple, the  law  of  conscience  is  the  supreme  law 
of  human  life.  By  conscience,  we  do  not  here 
mean  a  mere  sensibility  or  sentiment,  but  the 
sensibility  that  is  associated  with  the  intuition 
of  reason  and  the  power  of  moral  judgment. 
Its  function  is  to  command  right  action  in 
those  conditions  in  which  wrong  action  is  at 
the  same  time  possible ;  in  other  words,  to 
give  authoritative  judgment  for  the  claims  of 
the  highest  principle  of  action  when  a  lower,  at 
the  same  time,  is  in  competition  with  it.  This 
judgment  carries  with  it  the  principle  of _du£y, 
or  the  conscigusiibligatiQiLto  determine  action 
accordingly.  The  law  is  therefore  ethical  in 
its  character,  demanding  righteousness  in  pur- 
pose and  conduct.  When  the  issue  is  not 
directly     between    competing     principles    of 


44  The  Immortal  Life 

action,  but  between  possible  courses  of  conduct, 
which  may  prove  wise  or  unwise  as  affected  by- 
variable  and  uncertain  conditions,  the  law  re- 
quires candid  judgment  and  intentional XoydXty 
to  the  highest  interests  at  stake. 

Now,  this  obligation  of  loyalty  to  the  highest 
interests  shows  that  the  same  principle  of  sub- 
ordination that  rules  in  Nature  is  to  be  the 
governing  principle  in  human  life.  It  is  the 
principle  of  unity  in  any  organic  system,  and  if 
applied  by  man,  he  is  in  harmony  with  the 
principle  that  governs  the  order  of  Nature  and 
he  realizes  unity  and  harmony  in  his  own  life. 
But  while  the  principle  of  order  is  the  same  in 
Nature  and  in  human  life,  the  energy  and  the 
functions  by  which  it  is  carried  into  effect  are 
totally  different.  This  difference  should  be 
especially  noted  at  this  point.  In  the  move- 
ments of  Nature  the  energy  is  divinj^  and  the 
functions  are  those  we  attribute  to  natural  law, 
under  the  operation  of  impersonal  forces. 
These  make  it  uniformly  effective  by  no  intel- 
ligence or  choice  of  their  own,  but  as  instru- 
ments of  the  divine  agency.  BuJL-in— the 
rational  life  of  man  the  effe£jt^e_^agency  is 
Jiumam,  and  the  functions  by  which  man  carries 
the  law  into  effect  are  those  of  rational  action 
put  forth  voluntarily  as  a  responsible  agent. 


The  Immortal  Life  45 

Here  we  begin  to  see  the  radical  difference 
between  Nature  and  man,  and  between  natural 
and  ethical  law.  Natural  law  has  indeed  a  wide 
range  in  the  human  organism,  since  the 
physical  and  chemic  forces,  together  with  the 
principles  of  vegetal  and  animal  life,  are  in  full 
operation  within  it  for  the  sure  and  uniform 
fulfilment  of  their  natural  functions.  The 
various  processes  of  circulation,  secretion,  as- 
similation, and  others  go  on  independent  of 
human  exertion  and  below  the  range  of  con- 
scious volition.  But  ethical  law  is  addressed 
directly  to  the  ratigjQal  intelligence  and  the 
conscj^ence,  and  it  is  not  operative,  except  as 
man  vo/un^arzly^ccepts  and  enforces  it  over 
himsdf!  If  he  fails  to  put  forth  this  action  the 
law  fails  to  be  operative.  Hence  the  law 
breaks  down  because  of  a  neglect  of  duty. 
Now  there  is  no  such  failure  in  the  domain  of 
Nature.  Every  natural  law  is  sure  and  uni- 
form^in  its  operation,  because  the  Creator,  in 
[ordering  its  forces,  is  always  true  to  Hfs  own 
\economy.  Accordingly,  the  principle  of  sub- 
^dination,  the  lower  to  the  higher,  uniformly 
prevails  in  all  the  kingdoms  below  man.  For 
example,  the  physical  and  the  chemical  are 
subordinated  to  the  vegetal  and  the  animal,  in 
loyal  service  for  the  growth  and  development 


46  The  Immortal  Life 

of  living  organisms.  Moreover,  as  soon  as 
principles  of  action  become  factors  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  animal  life,  the  same  principle  is  made 
effective,  the  lower  instincts  and  appetites 
being  subordinated  to  parental  love  and  the 
continuance  of  the  species.  But  in  the  transi- 
tion from  animal  to  man  we  see  a  change  of 
a  singular  and  even  revolutionary  character. 
Here  lower  principles  are  often  dominant  over 
higher,  appetite  over  natural  affection,  avarice 
over  justice,  passion  over  reason,  and  all  man- 
ner of  selfish  desires  over  benevolence  and 
righteousness.  It  is  certainly_remarkable  that 
the  great  principle  of  unity  and  harmony  in 
Nature  should  break"~d^wn  and  faitTo"be  op- 
erative in  human  life.  This  is  not  only  a 
departure  from  the  cosmic  order,  but  a  plain 
violatfon  of  its  governing  pj-ixiciples,  when 
loyaltyToTtis  quite  as  important  as  in  the 
lower  realms.  For  such  failure  on  the  part  of 
man  results  in  his  debasement,  in  the  petver- 
sion  of  his  rational  powers,  and  in  detriment  to 
all  human  interests.  Such  a  change  in  the 
order  of  things  may  well  excite  wonder,  when 
we  reflect  upon  the  fact  that  man  is  the  latest, 
and  presumably  the  highest,  outcome  of  the 
cosmic  progression.  The  wonder  is  that  man 
alone  should  fail  to  conform  to  that  principle 


The  Immortal  Life  47 

of  order  which  prevails  universally  in  Nature, 
and  which  is  so  essential  to  all  the  interests  of 
humanity.  Yet  man  is  called  "the  heir  of  all 
the  ages,"  the  "paragon  of  the  world."  But 
as,  under  natural  law,  he  is  a  failure,  since 
natural  forces  do  not  make  the  principle  of 
cosmic  order  effective  in  human  life,  conse- 
quently man  is  out  of  harmony  with  that  order 
and  with  himself. 

Is  there  any  possible  explanation  of  this 
break  in  the  world's  order  and  of  the  conse- 
quent degradation  of  human  life  ? 

At  this  point  we  come  to  the  testimony  of 
consciousness  from  the  nature  or  cosmic  side, 
and  we  find  it  supported  by  the  whole  previous 
order  and  by  the  natural  endowment  and  the 
conditions  that  demand  of  man  precisely  those 
functions  which  would  fill  the  break  and  bring 
him  into  harmony  with  the  world's  order  and 
with  the  law  of  rational  life.  Note,  here,  the 
following  facts  of  experience  : 

ist.  In  allowinor  lower  to  dominate  hiorher 
principles  of  action,  man  violates  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  cosmic  order. 

2d.  For  this  violation  he  is  conscious  of 
debaseinejit  and  guilt. 

3d.  The  same  experience  brings  the  sense  of 
responsibility  for  not  summoning  a  power  to 


48  The  Immortal  Life 

overrule  and  set  aside  the  claim  of  the  lower 
principle  in  the  interests  of  the  higher ;  and 
whenever  this  is  done  there  is  the  satisfaction 
of  fulfilling  a  duty. 

In  these  conditions,  men  are  brought  face  to 
face  with  themselves  as  responsible  powers, 
under  obligation  to  order  their  lives  by  the 
same  principle  that  God  makes  effective  in 
Nature.  Hence,  this  principle,  which  is  thus 
passed  over  into  the  keeping  of  man,  becomes 
an  ethical  principle,  as  every  conscience  testi- 
fies. It  belongs,  in  fact,  to  the  dignity  of  man, 
since  it  is  the  dictate  of  reason,  as  well  as  the 
demand  of  duty,  to  subordinate  the  lower  to 
the  higher  principle  whenever  they  come  into 
competition.  There  can  be  no  reason  given 
for  sacrificing  what  is  of  superior  quality  and 
worth  to  that  which  is  inferior.  Accordingly, 
the  cosmic  principle  of  order  is  a  righteous 
principle,  and  the  Creator  manifests  His  right- 
eous character  in  incorporating  it  into  the  very 
structure  and  movements  of  the  world.  Nature, 
of  course,  is  non-ethical,  but  He  who  orders 
the  forces  with  uniform  preference  of  the 
highest  and  best  end  must  be  righteous  in 
character. 

Now,  if,  as  some  affirm,  man  is  wholly  a 
child  of  Nature,  acting  only  under  the  domi- 


The  Immortal  Life  49 

nance  of  her  laws,  why  does  he  so  often  vio- 
late the  fundamental  principle  of  her  economy  ? 
As  a  child  of  Nature,  man  should  conform  to 
her  laws.  The  unity  which  the  scientists  find 
everywhere  in  the  natural  world  forbids  the 
supposition  that  Nature  is  divided  against  her- 
self. It  would  be  a  strange  happening  if  her 
ruling  principle  should  be  found  to  break 
down  in  her  highest  product,  unless  there  is 
some  provision  for  carrying  it  into  effect  by 
some  other  agency.  Now,  it  is  significant  that 
where  the  cosmic  forces  make  this  divine 
principle  of  order  effective  in  all  their  domain, 
even  in  the  lower  nature  of  man,  they  do  not 
enforce  it  in  the  sphere  of  man's  rational  life. 
Here  they  withhold  their  customary  agency,  as 
in  deference  to  a  sovereignty  and  prerogative 
they  are  bidden  not  to  invade.  The  whole 
aspect  of  things,  therefore,  seems  to  mean  that 
at  that  point  where  natural  forces  no  longer 
make  this  principle  effective  in  human  life,  it 
is  transferred  to  the  keeping  of  man,  to  be 
carried  into  effect  by  his  voluntary  agency,  on 
his  own  responsibility.  This  is  precisely  what 
we  might  expect  from  the  nature  of  the  en- 
dowments given  him.  For,  as  possessing  rea- 
son and  conscience,  he  is  qualified  to  assume 
responsibility  in  directing  his  activities  for  the 


50  The  Immortal  Life 

higher  of  competing  ends.  In  fact,  it  belongs 
to  the  normal  functions  of  one  possessing  rea- 
son and  conscience  to  give  the  order  of  reason 
to  his  thoughts  and  the  order  of  ricrhteousness 
to  his  actions.  For  the  one  he  has  the  law  of 
truth,  and  for  the  other  the  law  of  righteous- 
ness, in  his  own  keeping.  The  lower  king- 
doms were  evidently  preparative  for  a  kingdom 
of  rational  intelligence  for  beings  who  could 
receive  more  richly  of  the  divine  goodness,  and 
whom  the  Most  High  could  exalt  into  con- 
verse with  himself.  Matter  could  give  no  re- 
sponse. The  animal  creation  could  not  even 
know  their  benefactor.  Until  man  appeared 
there  was  no  being  on  the  earth  who  could  ap- 
preciate the  beauty  and  sublimity  of  creation 
or  the  glory  of  its  Author.  All  were  uncon- 
sciously working  out  ends  prescribed  for  them, 
with  no  freedom  and  no  aspiration  for  any- 
thing above  the  level  of  Nature.  Man  alone 
could  interpret  the  world  and  come  into  intelli- 
gent communication  with  the  Most  High,  with 
capacities  for  seeking  the  highest  possible  ex- 
cellence and  of  realizing  the  supreme  good, 
with  freedom  to  refuse  it  under  ethical  law. 

Here  was  a  manifest  departure  from  the 
order  of  Nature  to  that  of  the  moral  life.  Moral 
power  takes  the  place  of  physical  and  organic 


The  Immortal  Life  51 

forces  in  determining  the  ends  of  Hfe,  and  in 
accepting  or  refusing  to  carry  the  principle  of 
subordination  as  the  principle  of  righteousness 
into  the  sphere  of  rational  life.  Natural 
forces  now  decline  to  fulfil  their  high  function 
for  man.  He  must  himself  fulfil  it  or  it  fails, 
and  he  fails  to  fulfil  a  plain  duty.  Such  is 
the  testimony  of  consciousness  :  remorse  and 
a  sense  of  guilt  inevitably  following  such 
failure. 

Now,  such  consciousness  strikes  deeper  than 
any  other.  It  cannot  be  trifled  with.  Nor 
has  it  any  meaning  if  man  is  but  a  creature  of 
natural  law.  Everything  tends  to  confirm 
the  fact  that  responsibility  is  laid  upon  man 
by  his  Maker  for  not  accepting  the  principle 
of  the  cosmic  order,  to  give  it  effect  in  the 
sphere  of  his  rational  life  :  his  endowments 
qualify  him  for  it ;  he  condemns  himself  for 
failing  to  do  it ;  the  occasion  plainly  de- 
mands it,  and  the  fact  that  God  suspends  the 
action  of  the  natural  forces  just  at  the  point 
where  man  knows  he  is  under  obligation  to 
assume  the  function  they  lay  at  his  feet,  and 
fulfil  it  voluntarily  for  himself, — all  these  con- 
siderations give  validity  to  the  testimony  of 
the  human  consciousness  that  man  is  a  moral 
and  responsible  being,  and,  in  respect  to  the 


52  The  Immortal  Life 

duty  of  subjecting  lower  to  higher  principles, 
he  is  under  ethical  and  not  under  natural  law. 
In  other  words,  man  has  been  qualified  and 
commissioned  to  overrule  the  forces  of  his 
organism  and  to  carry  out  the  divine  principle 
of  order  in  his  own  life,  according  to  the  same 
law  of  truth  and  right  that  God  enforces  in 
the  natural  domain.  To  be  righteous  in  the 
way  of  self-government,  as  God  is  righteous,  is 
the  true  vocation  of  every  man. 

To  do  this  requires  just  that  sovereignty 
and  prerogative  over  the  principles  of  action 
that  belong  to  his  nature,  that  are  given  him 
through  his  endowments  and  by  the  organic 
law  of  the  cosmic  system.  For  by  that  law 
the  highest  form  of  energy  is,  by  prescriptive 
right,  the  dominant  factor  in  any  given  organ- 
ism. In  man,  of  course,  the  rational  is  the 
kingly  energy,  and  should  overrule  all  inferior 
forces  of  his  organism,  under  ethical  law  as  the 
supreme  law  of  human  life.  This  requires 
earnest  and  decisive  individual  effort,  in  the 
way  of  moral  judgments  as  to  the  merit  of 
conflicting  claims  and  in  the  determining 
choice.  There  seem  to  be  wise  reasons  why 
it  is  not  easy  and  natural  to  originate  and 
maintain  a  righteous  life.  Doubtless  the 
Creator  might  have  so  constituted  man  that 


The  Immortal  Life  53 

the  principle  of  righteousness  might  be  made 
effective  through  natural  forces,  as  it  is  in  Na- 
ture.    In  this  case  conformity  to  it  would  be 
sure  and  uniform  under  natural   law,  as  the 
falling  of  a  stone  under  the  law  of  gravity. 
But  such  righteousness  would  possess  no  moral 
quality.      There  is  no  scope  for  ethical   law 
where  natural  law  has  full  sway.     Man  so  con- 
stituted would  have  been  innocent,  as  the  birds 
are   innocent.     But   a  constitution   thus  per- 
fectly adjusted  to  the  divine  order  would  be 
divinely  ordered,  like  the  movements  of  the 
planets,    not   ^^^-ordered  by  human  agency. 
There  would  be  no  temptation   to  prefer  a 
lower  to  a  higher  good,  and  therefore  no  call 
for  self-denial,  nor  even  for  moral  judgments 
and  choices  when  natural  proclivities  are  the 
determining  forces.     Constitutional  tendencies 
do  not  fulfil   ethical  functions.     Under  their 
dominance  one  cannot  originate  a  character  of 
his  own,  distinct  from  that  given  by  the  Crea- 
tor, and  human   history  would   be   simply  a 
chapter  in  natural  history,  a  record  of  the  un- 
folding or  evolution  of  organic  life.     No  one 
in  these  conditions  would  be  brought  face  to 
face  with  himself  as  a  moral  and  responsible 
agent.     Whatever  other  excellences  one  might 
possess,  the  highest  and  the  crowning  one  of 


54  The  Immortal  Life 

all,  moral  excellence,  would  be  wanting.  But 
this  very  excellence,  above  all  others,  the  Most 
High  desired  for  His  rational  creatures,  since 
He  qualified  them  for  its  attainment  and  fur- 
nished the  conditions  suited  to  this  end.  Only 
in  its  possession  could  they  realize  the  highest 
possible  good  in  blessedness  and  worthiness  of 
character. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  referred  to  the 
union  in  man  of  a  lower  and  a  higher  nature, 
and  of  the  consequent  presence  in  conscious- 
ness of  their  conflicting  claims  urged  at  the 
same  time.  Such  a  constitution,  which  some 
have  thought  an  unfortunate  arrangement, 
furnishes,  nevertheless,  the  occasion  for  those 
peculiar  experiences  which  are  the  fit  introduc- 
tion to  what  may  be  termed  the  distinctively 
moral,  in  place  of  the  natural,  life.  For  the 
opposing  claims,  higher  and  lower  as  pre- 
sented in  consciousness,  reveal  moral  distinc- 
tions, and  such  revelation  is  the  condition  for 
exercising  moral  judgments  of  their  relative 
claims  as  the  basis  for  those  choices  which 
determine  character.  It  will  be  seen,  there- 
fore, that  the  union  of  the  two  natures,  with 
their  competing  claims,  gives  occasion  and  de- 
mand for  precisely  those  functions  which  are 
ethical,  and  which  distinguish  the  rational  ac- 


The  Immortal  Life  55 

tions  of  man  from  those  of  creatures  which  are 
under  natural  law.  Now,  to  recoofnize  moral 
distinctions  as  presented  in  a  concrete  case,  to 
adjudge  the  merits  of  the  competing  claims, 
as  right  or  wrong  in  the  given  conditions,  and 
to  give  preference  to  the  claim  which  is  just 
and  right  under  ethical  law — these  are  rational 
functions  above  the  range  of  natural  law.  One 
may,  indeed,  yield  passively  to  a  prevailing  im- 
pulse or  to  natural  inclination,  and  let  natural 
forces  determine  his  action.  But  this  is  irra- 
tional and  wrong,  when  the  true  and  the  false, 
the  right  and  the  wrong,  enter  into  the  case. 
The  call  is  for  the  exercise  of  a  reserve  and 
superior  power  to  intervene  and  govern  natural 
inclination,  according  to  the  demands  of  duty. 
It  belongs  to  the  rational  manhood  to  over- 
rule the  claim  of  the  lower  principles  and  give 
effect  to  that  of  the  higher.  It  is  not  for  the 
natural  principles  themselves,  lower  or  higher, 
to  determine  one's  action  independently  of  his 
rational  judgment  and  choice.  This  would  be 
like  determining  action  by  the  heavier  weight 
in  the  scales.  There  is  a  power  in  man  su- 
perior to  his  principles  of  action,  and  it  is  his 
prerogative  and  his  duty  to  exercise  that 
power  in  overruling  them.  It  is  the  power  of 
moral   sovereignty  over  all  the  forces  of  his 


5^  The  Immortal  Life 

organism,  and  he  becomes  master  of  himself 
only  by  its  exercise,  as  under  ethical  and  not 
under  natural  law.  This  sovereignty  is  a  trust 
committed  to  him,  with  liberty  to  exercise  it  as 
he  will,  but  as  under  the  obligations  of  duty  to 
use  it  for  ends  that  are  high  and  worthy  in 
preference  to  those  that  are  low  and  sinful. 
Liberty  of  choice  between  such  alternatives  is 
an  essential  condition  of  the  ethical  life,  since 
without  it,  as  under  natural  law,  men's  actions 
are  determined/^r  them,  not  by  them.  Hence, 
a  twofold  nature  presenting  in  consciousness 
such  alternatives,  through  competing  principles 
of  action,  which  are  to  be  adjusted  to  the  de- 
mands of  ethical  law  by  the  determining  choice 
of  the  individual  agent  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility, is  a  condition  divinely  provided  for 
originating  moral  character  and  achieving  the 
highest  possible  excellence.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment does  not  indicate  an  oversight  of  the 
Almighty,  but  rather  a  purpose  to  make  possi- 
ble for  His  rational  creation  the  highest  possible 
good.  For,  as  connected  with  this  arrange- 
ment He  confers  on  man  a  sovereign  and 
causal  power,  distinct  from  the  natural  forces 
of  his  organism,  and  superior  to  them,  by  which 
he  can  overrule  all  his  forces  for  the  highest 
and  best  end,  and  thus  by  a  Godlike  power 


The  Immortal  Life  57 

can  achieve  a  GodHke  character.  The  Lord 
of  the  world  does  not  want  the  services  of 
slaves,  but  of  those  who  can  freely  command 
their  own  loyalty.  Nature  He  rules  by  His 
own  efficient  energy,  for  an  end  above  and 
beyond  itself.  That  end  is  a  vast  kingdom 
of  righteous  souls  whose  acts  shall  not  be 
sequences  in  a  chain  of  natural  causes,  but 
the  agency  of  free  and  loyal  subjects,  estab- 
lished in  integrity  through  their  own  intelligent 
choice.  To  be  made  capable  of  this  supreme 
good  is  the  highest  privilege  and  dignity.  But 
the  sovereignty  required  for  it  may  be  used  for 
unworthy  and  base  ends.  There  is  a  moral 
system  from  the  nature  of  the  case  ;  truth  and 
falsehood,  the  highest  excellence  and  blessed- 
ness, and  debasement  and  ruin  stand  over 
against  each  other.  Of  course,  the  choice  be- 
tween these  alternatives  determines  character. 
The  mystery  is  that  a  rational  being  should 
ever  make  the  base  and  ruinous  choice.  Cer- 
tainly no  one  can  be  master  of  himself  and 
give  rational  unity  to  his  life  except  by  assert- 
ing the  prerogative  given  him  to  overrule  all 
the  forces  of  his  organism  according  to  the 
law  of  Truth  and  Right.  In  this  way  can  he 
assume  his  legitimate  rank  as  above  Nature. 
For  it  is  by  asserting  this  prerogative  over  the 


58  The  Immortal  Life 

natural  and  impulsive  principles  of  his  organ- 
ism that  he  shows  his  superiority  to  them. 

But,  beyond  the  control  of  his  organic  forces, 
man  is  more  and  more  learning  to  command 
the  great  forces  of  Nature  to  attain  his  ends. 
It  is  not  by  matching  his  strength  against 
them,  but  by  learning  and  conforming  to  the 
laws  of  their  movement  that  he  makes  them 
the  pliant  instruments  of  his  will.  In  this  way 
he  not  only  proves  his  dignity,  but  multiplies 
his  power  a  thousand-fold.  He  can  bid  the 
waterfalls  turn  the  wheels  of  his  factories,  the 
winds  and  steam  to  carry  his  ships  at  sea,  elec- 
tricity to  propel  his  cars,  to  light  and  heat  his 
dwellings  and  to  run  on  his  errands  around  the 
world.  The  mines  of  coal  and  the  precious 
metals,  the  riches  of  the  forest,  of  the  soil  and 
the  sea,  are  all  his  for  use  and  comfort  in  his 
daily  life,  with  the  high  privilege  and  duty  of 
subordinating  all  to  the  supreme  interest,  the 
life  of  righteousness.  He  may  be  said  to  have 
dominion  over  all  things,  that  he  may  make 
them  tributary  to  the  highest  possible  good. 


MAN   A  PERSONALITY  BELONGING 
TO  THE  SPIRITUAL  KINGDOM 

"  There  is  a  spirituality  in  man,  a  self  power  or  Will  at  the  root 
of  all  his  being." 

Coleridge, 

"  The  moral  activity  is  an  end  in  itself.  What  is  being  accom- 
plished in  the  moral  life  is  therefore  always  an  invisible  and  spiritual 
result," 

Seth,  Studies  of  Ethical  Principles,  p.  450. 

"  There  is  in  man  a  spiritual  element  in  which  the  brute  has  no 
share.  His  power  of  indefinite  progress,  his  thoughts  and  desires 
that  look  onward  even  beyond  time,  his  perception  of  a  spiritual 
existence,  and  of  a  Divinity  above,  all  evince  a  nature  that  partakes 
of  the  infinite  and  divine." 

Dana's  Geology,  p.  574. 


59 


CHAPTER  IV 

MAN  A  PERSONALITY  BELONGING  TO 
THE  SPIRITUAL  KINGDOM 

TN  the  preceding  chapter  we  endeavored  to 
*  show  that  man  is  a  responsible  being  under 
ethical  law,  and  that  as  such  he  is  above 
Nature,  and  can  overrule  her  forces  for  his 
personal  ends.  As  conscious  of  responsibility, 
he  is  face  to  face  with  himself  as  a  moral  per- 
son, invested  with  causal,  self-determining 
power.  Hence  his  actions  cannot  be  mere 
sequences  in  the  chain  of  natural  causes,  nor 
can  his  consciousness  be  identified  with  the 
molecular  processes,  in  brain  substance,  nor 
with  automatic  responses  to  external  stimulus, 
reported  to  nerve  centres  of  the  cerebral 
organ.  Rational  life  does  not  come  under  the 
laws  of  mechanics,  which  allow  no  scope  for 
responsibility  under  ethical  law.  The  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  is  direct  testimony 
to  its  reality,  and  is  the  basis  of  a  connection 
too  clear  and  persistent  to  be  set  aside  by  any 
speculative  theory.     We  have  shown  also  that 

6l 


62  The  Immortal  Life 

this  testimony  is  confirmed  from  the  cosmic 
side,  inasmuch  as  the  great  principle  of  cosmic 
order  is  not  carried  into  effect  in  the  rational 
life  of  man  by  impersonal  forces,  and  that  it 
utterly  fails,  unless  man  voluntarily  accepts 
and  enforces  over  himself  as  an  ethical  princi- 
ple, which,  as  every  man  knows,  lays  upon 
him  the  obligation  of  obedience  to  its  de- 
mands, as  the  supreme  law  of  his  rational  life. 
Besides,  this  law  is  not  made  operative  by 
natural  forces,  and  as  it  is  as  indispensable  to 
the  normal  order  and  well-being  of  rational 
life  as  it  is  to  the  unity  and  harmony  of 
Nature,  it  is  evidently  passed  over  from  Nature 
to  man  as  a  trust  committed  to  his  keeping. 
The  fact  that  he  cannot  depend  upon  impulse, 
or  any  natural  force,  to  carry  it  into  effect, 
with  the  certainty  and  uniformity  of  natural 
law,  but  that  its  operation  depends  wholly 
upon  his  voluntary  acceptance,  and  enforce- 
ment by  moral  judgments  and  choice,  is  proof 
that  it  is  not  a  natural  law,  but  a  law  of  duty 
for  the  rational  and  moral  life.  It  brings  to 
him  obligation  but  not  compulsion,  for  liberty 
is  always  associated  with  responsibility.  It 
is  a  necessary  condition  of  that  moral  excel- 
lence which  is  the  end  of  creation  and  which 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  Nature. 


The  Immortal  Life  63 

We  do  not  claim  for  man  the  freedom  of  a 
perfect  or  absolute  personality.  This,  as  Dr. 
Lotze  affirms,  belongs  only  to  God.  Man  has 
the  limitations  of  a  finite  nature.  He  is  sub- 
ject to  laws  and  conditions  beyond  his  control. 
But  these  limitations  do  not  encroach  upon 
his  moral  freedom,  which  pertains  especially 
to  his  choice  of  ultimate  ends.  In  walking  he 
must  conform  to  mechanical  laws,  in  thinking 
to  the  laws  of  thought.  But  the  end  for  which 
he  walks  and  thinks  he  determines  for  him- 
self, and  it  is  this  choice  of  ultimate  ends  that 
determines  his  course  of  life,  and  his  charac- 
ter. We  are  not  called  upon  to  explain  how 
man,  grounded  in  nature,  can  rise  above  it  in 
asserting  his  moral  prerogative.  But  two 
things  are  plain.  ist.  As  possessing  the 
highest  form  of  energy,  the  rational,  he  has, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  prescriptive  right  to  over- 
rule all  the  forces  of  his  organism,  according 
to  the  supreme  law  of  rational  life.  2d.  This 
law  in  its  nature  is  ethical,  which,  in  imposing 
moral  obligation  to  fulfil  it,  involves  responsi- 
bility, and  the  liberty  which  always  goes  with 
it.  Herbert  Spencer  has  given  to  the  world 
an  able  work  on  the  Data  of  Ethics,  but  at  the 
same  time  advocates  a  philosophy  which,  in 
denying  human  personality,  allows  no  scope 


64  The  Immortal  Life 

for  ethical  functions.  In  his  definition  of  life, 
also,  "The  adjustment  of  internal  relations  to 
external  relations,  or  the  correspondence  of 
the  organism  to  its  environment,"  there  is  no 
recognition  of  the  essential  characteristic  of 
rational  life.  It  applies  to  vegetal  and  animal 
life  only.  Rational  life  is  of  a  higher  order, 
and  requires  the  adjustment  of  voluntary  ac- 
tivities to  the  demands  of  ethical  law  within. 
In  the  struggle  for  physical  life,  man,  like  the 
animal,  must  adjust  his  organism  to  its  environ- 
ment. But  his  struggle  for  moral  and  spiritual 
life  demands  the  adjustment  of  purpose  and 
choice  to  the  requirements  of  an  inner  spiritual 
law  in  the  way  of  self-government.  This  is  the 
very  struggle  that  characterizes  manhood.  If 
man  has  no  self-conscious,  self-directing  Ego 
to  order  his  life  by  the  inward  law  of  right- 
eousness as  well  as  in  correspondence  with  en- 
vironment, there  are  no  "  data  of  ethics  in  the 
man,"  and  a  work  assuming  such  data,  but 
denying  the  power  to  fulfil  ethical  functions 
in  the  way  of  self-government,  is  like  giving 
us  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  Hamlet  left  out. 
Man  has  rational  powers,  a  delegated  sover- 
eignty, as  we  have  shown,  for  the  very  purpose 
of  riofhteous  self-sfovernment.  Had  the  Creator 
given  a  constitution  that  would  of  itself  carry 


The  Immortal  Life  65 

out  the  principle  of  subordination,  leaving  no 
liberty  of  moral  choice,  the  progress  of  crea- 
tion would  have  ended  in  Nature,  and  amoral 
kingdom,  the  crown  of  all,  would  not  have 
come  into  being.  So  long  as  one  cannot  deny 
his  obligation  to  choose  the  true  and  the 
right,  rather  than  the  false  and  the  wrong,  he 
must  know  himself  subject  to  ethical  law  and 
condemn  himself  for  its  violation.  To  deny 
his  liberty  of  moral  choice,  is  to  disown  his 
manhood  and  to  drop  from  the  realm  of  per- 
sons to  that  of  things.  Rational  endowments 
carry  with  them  the  obligations  of  rational 
action,  and  they  therefore  bring  him  face  to 
face  with  himself  as  a  personal  living  being, 
bound  to  exercise  righteous  sovereignty  over 
himself,  in  obedience  to  ethical  law.  Such  is 
the  nature  of  self-government,  and  it  implies 
not  only  the  exercise  o{  personal  functions,  but 
also  those  of  a  spiritual  being.  This  determines 
his  place  in  the  spiritual  kingdom. 

This  will  be  manifest  when  we  consider  the 
ends  he  is  to  seek,  the  law  he  is  to  administer, 
the  functions  exercised  in  administering  it,  and 
the  general  character  of  the  rational  life. 

First,  the  ends  he  is  to  seek  are  spiritual. 

Life  has  many  subordinate  ends,  not  in 
themselves  spiritual,  but  chosen  as  means  for 


66  The  Immortal  Life 

attaining  those  that  are  uUimate  and  spiritual. 
It  is  the  choice  of  ultimate  ends  which  is 
properly  ethical  and  determines  character.  In 
both  the  lower  and  higher  nature  are  princi- 
ples of  action  correlated  to  special  objects  or 
ends.  The  lower  nature  has  its  cravings, 
which  are  of  course  unspiritual,  but  innocent 
when  their  claims  do  not  conflict  with  those  of 
superior  rank  and  value.  But  we  crave 
objects  that  are  not  material,  and  which  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  body.  They  are 
objects  that  address  our  spiritual  nature  and 
meet  our  higher  wants.  For  example,  we  seek 
for  spiritual  realities,  or  for  the  deeper  mean- 
ing of  phenomena,  which  does  not  address  the 
senses  but  the  rational  understanding.  We 
seek  for  invisible  principles  for  causes,  laws,  and 
ends  that  open  to  us  the  rational  order  of  the 
world,  and  that  unity  which  is  one  with  truth. 
Truth  is  a  spiritual  reality,  meeting  the  deep 
wants  of  our  spiritual  nature.  It  is  divine,  as 
representing  divine  thought  and  purpose.  It 
is  the  very  sustenance  and  guide  of  the 
rational  and  moral  life,  and  as  such  is  an  im- 
portant endoi  the  spiritual  life.  Beauty  also  ad- 
dresses our  spiritual  and  aesthetic  nature  and 
is  a  spiritual  reality.  Spiritually  discerned, 
color,  form,  and  sound  have  no  beauty  until 


The  Immortal  Life  67 

they  are  made  to  express  those  harmonious 
relations  that  touch  our  finer  sensibilities.  The 
profusion  of  beauty,  in  all  its  varieties,  that 
gives  to  Nature  its  inexpressible  charm,  and 
the  great  masterpieces  of  Art,  that  are  the 
admiration  of  the  world,  would  be  as  a  blank, 
unheeded,  without  that  power  of  spiritual  dis- 
cernment which  belongs  to  oursesthetic  nature. 

Furthermore,  the  moral  qualities  that  give 
elevation  and  worthiness  to  the  ethical  life  are 
all  spiritual  in  their  nature.  Justice,  purity, 
humility,  patience,  faith,  love,  righteousness, 
are  some  of  the  qualities  to  which  we  refer. 
They  do  not  centre  in,  or  belong  to,  the  physi- 
cal organism,  but  they  are  correlated  to  the 
higher  psychical  and  spiritual  life  which  uses 
the  body  only  as  its  instrument  for  the  up- 
building of  character  and  the  perfection  of  the 
moral  life.  This  is  the  supreme  end  to  which 
truth,  beauty,  and  the  whole  education  of  life 
should  lead. 

Again,  ethical  law,  requiring  the  subordina- 
tion of  lower  to  higher  ends  when  in  compe- 
tition, is  a  spiritual  law,  and  it  is  the  great  law 
of  the  spiritual  life.  It  is  not  only  invisible, 
but  it  addresses  man's  power  of  spiritual  dis- 
cernment and  of  moral  judgment  as  inherent 
in  his  reason  and  conscience. 


68  The  Immortal  Life 

It  addresses  the  will,  not  as  a  form  of  physi- 
cal energy  but  as  a  moral  power,  competent  to 
subordinate  physical  and  organic  forces  from 
a  higher  plane,  for  the  ends  of  the  spiritual 
life. 

Again,  the  functions  by  which  the  law  is 
made  effective  are  spiritual.  Those  which 
were  referred  to  in  the  previous  chapter  are 
essentially  as  follows  :  the  acceptance  of 
ethical  law  as  supreme  and  imperative,  the  ap- 
plication of  this  law  to  conflicting  principles 
of  action  through  moral  judgments,  the  actual 
preference  of  the  higher  principle,  and,  finally, 
the  giving  effect  to  that  preference  by  voli- 
tional action. 

Not  one  of  these  functions  comes  under 
cosmic  or  natural  law.  They  are  all  functions 
of  the  inner,  psychical  life,  for  the  ends  of 
righteousness.  The  term  "spiritual,"  is  not 
easily  defined,  but  it  applies  to  those  functions 
that  are  purely  psychical,  correlated  to  invis- 
ible realities,  and  to  ends  that  are  subjective 
and  spiritually  apprehended.  The  above 
functions  answer  to  these  tests. 

Finally,  to  live  rationally  is  to  live  and  move 
in  a  spiritual  world  ;  dealing  habitually  with 
spiritual  realities.  Such  a  world  is  within  and 
around  us.     The  fact  that  the  world  is  ration- 


The  Immortal  Life  69 

ally  ordered  means  that  through  its  phe- 
nomena we  see  the  invisible  and  the  spiritual 
Power  that  ordered  it,  even  the  thoughts,  pur- 
poses, and  attributes  of  the  Creator.  Through 
phenomena  we  see  invisible  law  as  the  method 
of  the  divine  agency  ;  through  the  combined 
operation  of  laws  and  forces  in  Nature,  we  see 
the  divine  thoughts  embodied  in  systems,  and 
in  the  combination  of  systems  we  see  the 
Living  Unity  to  which  all  truth  leads,  and 
which  the  totality  of  truth  must  represent 
All  these  phenomena,  laws,  systems  of  truth, 
represent  the  great,  living,  spiritual  Reality  to 
which  our  spiritual  nature  is  correlated. 

The  marvel  is  that  any  rational  person 
should  lack  this  spiritual  insight,  and  look 
upon  the  world  as  a  fortuitous  aggregation  of 
things  without  spiritual  meaning,  when  the 
very  idea  of  rational  order,  of  beauty  and 
truth,  means  an  unseen  rational  Intelligence 
as  the  original  cause,  and  the  very  soul  and 
significance  of  the  world  in  which  they  live 
and  move.  If  some  persons,  in  looking  at  the 
heavens,  do  not  discover  this  spiritual  Reality, 
it  is  because  only  their  physical  eye  is  open 
and  the  spiritual  eye  is  closed.  Not  only  do 
the  orderly  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
declare  the  higher  glory  that  shines  through 


yo  The  Immortal  Life 

them,  but  not  less  do  the  affinities  and  com- 
binations of  the  infinitesimal  and  atomic  world, 
and  the  orderly  ways  in  which  they  lend  their 
service  to  the  higher  forms  of  energy  in  the 
complex  processes  of  organic  life.  These  all 
declare  the  presence  and  working  of  the  same 
spiritual  and  omnipresent  Intelligence. 

Professor  Jevons,  with  whose  scientific  attain- 
ments the  world  is  familiar,  expresses  the  be- 
lief that  even  a  molecule  of  iron  has  in  its 
little  sphere  of  operations  an  order  of  rotary 
movements  that  surpasses  the  complexity  and 
harmony  of  the  movements  of  the  planetary 
system.  In  all  molecular  movements  on  the 
lowest  plane,  what  obedience  to  law  ;  in  crys- 
tallization, what  conformity  to  geometric  ideals; 
in  the  ascent  of  elements  and  principles  of  life 
from  lower  to  higher  planes,  what  uniform 
subordination  of  the  former  to  the  latter,  in 
loyal  and  co-operative  service,  of  the  highest 
spiritual  ends  !  The  fact  that  thoughtful  and 
discerning  minds  in  all  ages  have  recognized 
these  spiritual  manifestations  as  the  most  real 
and  impressive  of  all  things,  shows  that  there 
is  a  spiritual  element  in  man  answering  to  that 
in  Nature.  And  certainly  the  correspondence 
between  them  is  the  source  and  condition  not 
only  of  science,  but  also  of  the  deepest  spiritual 


The  Immortal  Life  71 

life.  In  fact,  how  superficial  and  narrow 
would  human  life  be  without  this  access  to 
and  correspondence  with  what  is  highest  and 
best  in  the  Universe  ! 

It  was  this  consciousness  in  Tennyson  that 
led  him  to  say,  with  emphasis  :  "  You  may 
tell  me  my  hands  and  my  feet  are  only  imagi- 
nary symbols  of  my  existence,  and  I  can  be- 
lieve you.  But  you  can  never,  never  convince 
me  that  the  /is  not  an  eternal  reality,  and  that 
the  spiritual  is  not  the  true  and  real  part  of 
me." — Life  of  Tennyson,  ii.,  p.  90. 

If  men  did  not  exercise  their  spiritual  func- 
tions— intellectual,  aesthetic,  and  moral — in  cor- 
respondence with  their  spiritual  environment, 
their  highest  culture  would  be  comparatively 
coarse  and  vulgar.  A  materialistic  age  is  of 
necessity  one  of  blunted  sensibility  and  low 
ideals.  It  sees  nothing  to  adore,  scarcely  any- 
thing to  awaken  wonder.  One  to  whom  the 
world  is  but  a  soulless  mechanism,  has  little 
use  for  his  higher  endowments.  He  sees  in 
creation  not  even  the  solemn  grandeur  of  the 
silent  sphinx.  It  holds  no  secrets.  It  keeps 
silence  because  it  has  nothing  to  say.  The 
ages  come  and  go,  bearing  no  message,  bring- 
ing to  view  phenomena,  and  only  phenomena. 
A    false   theory    hides    the   great   realities,  a 


72  The  Immortal  Life 

glimpse  of  which  would  bring  flashes  of  in- 
sight, awakening  awe  and  worship.  There  is 
a  broad  and  shining  firmament,  though  the 
blind  see  it  not.  And  as  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  telescope  there  are  worlds  and  systems  of 
worlds,  revealed  on  the  sensitive  plate  of  the 
astronomical  photographer,  so  to  the  sensitive 
spiritual  mind  are  revealed  the  realities  of  the 
Infinite,  shining  from  unfathomed  depths. 
They  touch  affinities,  and  stir  emotions  that 
seem  to  break  through  present  limitations  into 
clearer  and  broader  vision  of  the  Infinite. 

It  is  significant,  notwithstanding  the  blind- 
ness of  some,  that  the  human  spirit  has  such 
affinities  for  the  spiritual  in  a  world  unseen 
by  the  senses,  that  even  the  most  trivial  inci- 
dents suggest  it,  and  instrumentalities  that  in 
themselves  are  simply  mechanical  become  the 
medium  of  its  revelation.  To  how  many  do 
the  mechanical  vibrations  of  the  atmosphere 
become  spiritual  harmonies  in  the  soul,  or 
visions  of  realities  that  belong  to  a  higher 
world  !  That  mechanical  vibrations  to  the  ear 
should  thus  touch  spiritual  chords  within,  and 
be  the  medium  of  revelations  that  eye  hath 
not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  and  that  uplift  the 
soul  to  a  realm  purely  spiritual,  is  a  startling 
revelation    of   hidden    capacities    and   powers 


The  Immortal  Life  Va 

awaiting  development  into  larger  and  higher 
life.  We  respond  to  the  words  of  Tennyson, 
when  he  speaks  of 

"  The  tides  of  music's  golden  sea  setting  toward  eternity." 

We  are  sure,  too,  that  such  tides  lift  one  out 
of  self  into  the  experience  of  a  purer,  higher 
life  of  love. 

"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life  and  smote  on  all  the 
chords  with  might, 
Smote  the  chord  of  self  that,  trembling,  passed  in  music 
out  of  sight." 

Even  Horace  felt  "things  worthy  of  a  sacred 
silence  "  that  "  must  sound  across  the  under- 
world." 

When  under  the  power  of  spiritual  realities 
we  seem  to  be  taken  up  above  the  world  of 
time  and  sense,  where  we  do  not  reckon  time 
by  the  pendulum  of  the  clock,  but  by  the  depth 
and  fulness  of  the  inward  life.  Ages  are  thus 
compressed  into  an  hour,  and  certainly  an 
hour  of  such  life  is  better  than  an  age  of  dul- 
ness.  Though  it  may  be  well  that  such 
experiences  are  rare  and  of  short  duration, 
lest  they  shatter  the  frail  bodily  organism, 
they  give  plain  indication  of  capacities  that 
transcend  the  limitations  of  the  present  state 


74  The  Immortal  Life 

and  reveal  a  oreatness  of  which  we  are  ordi- 
narily  unconscious. 

And  if,  as  toward  the  silent  tomb  we  go, 

Thro'  love,  thro'  hope  and  faith's  transcendent  dower, 
We  feel  that  we  are  greater  than  we  know. 

Wordsworth,  River  Duddon. 

Is  it  not  strange  that  those  combinations  in 
form,  color,  and  tone,  through  which  we  begin 
to  realize  the  beautiful  and  sublime,  should  so 
touch  our  inward  nature  with  overpowering 
emotion  and  spiritual  vision  as  to  be  a  revela- 
tion of  affinities  within  that  are  ordinarily 
latent,  but  which  are  awaiting  the  removal  of 
present  limitations  for  the  full  realization  of 
that  of  which  we  have  occasional  glimpses  ? 
An  ideal  of  beauty,  partially  expressed,  sug- 
gests the  perfect.  It  is  this  partial  embodi- 
ment of  spiritual  ideals  in  various  forms  of 
excellence — intellectual,  aesthetic,  and  moral — 
that  gives  to  Nature  its  meaning,  and  to  man 
his  power  of  uplifting  communion  with  the 
great  Reality  it  both  veils  and  reveals.  With- 
out the  apprehension  of  the  spiritual  in  the 
world,  human  life  would  be  low  and  trivial,  if 
not  entirely  sensual.  Poetry,  art,  philosophy, 
would  be  but  body  without  spirit.  Men  be- 
come   men    only   as    the    spiritual    in    them 


The  Immortal  Life  75 

responds  to  the  spiritual  in  the  creation  of 
God.  That  so  many  have  this  precious  in- 
sight, and  find  in  it  the  development  of  a 
purer  and  nobler  humanity,  is  proof  that  man 
belongs  to  a  spiritual  kingdom. 


HUMAN  CAPACITIES  CORRELATED 
TO  AN  INFINITE  ENVIRONMENT 

"  Man  is  made  for  the  Infinite." 

Pascal. 

"Devout  feeling  embracing  its  object  and  losing  itself  therein, 
develops  an  infinite  fulness  of  life  which  it  is  totally  unable  to 
measure  or  express." 

Professor  Caird,  Evolution  of  Religion,  ii.,  p.  292. 


77 


CHAPTER  V 

HUMAN    CAPACITIES    CORRELATED    TO 
AN  INFINITE  ENVIRONMENT 

IN  estimating  the  range  of  human  capacities 
^  we  are  not  to  base  our  judgment  upon  the 
lowest  of  the  species  nor  upon  the  average 
man,  but  upon  those  who  have  attained  the 
highest  development.  Aristotle,  in  his  Ethics, 
gives  the  true  standard  in  the  following  defini- 
tion :  "The  nature  of  a  being  is  that  which  it 
has  become,  when  its  process  of  development 
is  over." 

Our  race  being  progressive,  not  only  do  the 
lowest  specimens  fail  to  represent  its  capabili- 
ties, but  the  most  advanced  are  seen  to  have 
possibilities  not  yet  realized.  We  are,  there- 
fore, likely  to  make  too  low,  rather  than  too 
high,  an  estimate  of  what  man  may  become. 
The  animal  soon  reaches  full  development,  and 
each  individual  may  be  said  to  represent  its 
species.  This  is  by  no  means  true  of  man. 
As  Emerson  expresses  it:  "Every  lion  is  a 
type  of  all  lionhood,  but  no  man  is  a  type  of 

79 


8o  The  Immortal  Life 

all  manhood."  Miss  Frances  Power  Cobb  ex- 
presses a  similar  thought :  "The  best  and  the 
greatest  men  have  been  imperfect  types,  of  a 
single  phase  of  manhood — of  the  saint,  the 
hero,  the  sage,  the  poet,  the  philanthropist,  the 
friend  ;  never  of  the  full-orbed  man  who  should 
be  all  these  together."      See  her  Life,  ii.,  p. 

381. 

But  in  rare  cases  many  excellences  and  even 
opposite  qualities  may  be  found  in  the  same 
individual;  e.g.,  the  speculative  and  the  prac- 
tical man,  the  scientist  and  the  philosopher, 
the  poet  and  the  mathematician,  all  in  one. 
That  such  apparently  opposite  qualities  may 
be  united  in  one  person  enlarges  our  concep- 
tion of  the  possibilities  to  be  realized.  In  fact, 
no  one  can  now  foretell  what  the  race  may 
become  in  the  distant  future.  The  human 
body  reaches  full  development  in  a  few  years, 
say,  at  forty-five,  and  after  that  gradually  de- 
clines. But  a  Gladstone  and  Martineau  at 
ninety  are  in  full  possession  of  their  mental 
powers.  It  is  significant  that  when  the  physi- 
cal organism  had  reached  its  highest  stage  of 
development,  there  was  a  departure  in  the 
line  of  progress  from  physical  to  psychical  and 
rational  life.  To  the  latter  we  can  assign  no 
limit ;  for  its  environment,  as  related  to  every 


The  Immortal  Life  8i 

department  of  that  Hfe, — whether  intellectual, 
aesthetic,  ethical,  or  religious, — opens  toward 
infinity.  Dr.  Lotze  well  says:  "  The  capacity 
of  being  conscious  of  the  Infinite,  is  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristic  of  the  human  mind." 
— Murocosmos,  ii.,  p.  714. 

Certainly  the  environment  of  his  rational 
nature  is  boundless,  and  if  life  is  the  corre- 
spondence of  man  with  his  environment,  he  is 
"capable  of  indefinite  progression."  Science, 
beginning  with  phenomena  and  ascertaining 
the  laws  of  their  coexistence  and  succession, 
proceeds  to  discover  the  interrelations  of 
forces,  and  kingdoms,  and  advances  toward  a 
higher  and  broader  unity,  embracing  the  whole 
circle  of  the  sciences.  But  philosophy  looks 
beyond  phenomena  and  law  to  causes,  princi- 
ples, and  ends,  till  it  reaches  the  highest  possi- 
ble unity,  in  the  creative  thought  and  purpose 
which  orders  atoms,  kingdoms,  and  worlds  as 
parts  of  one  cosmic  system,  the  Universe. 

But  the  departments  of  science  are  many, 
and  each  is  found  to  be  too  broad  to  be  com- 
pressed by  man  into  his  three-score-and-ten 
years.  In  fact,  the  thorough  scientist  has  to 
forego  the  study  of  any  science  in  its  broader 
relations  and  confine  his  studies  to  narrower 
boundaries.     It  is  said  of  a  German  professor, 


82  The  Immortal  Life 

a  noted  philologist,  that  on  his  death-bed  he 
confessed  sorrowfully  to  his  son  the  great 
mistake  of  his  life  :  "  I  ought  to  have  con- 
fined myself  to  the  Dative  case."  Whether 
true  or  not,  it  illustrates  the  fact  that  one  who 
would  perfect  himself  in  any  department  of 
study  must  restrict  his  inquiries  to  very  nar- 
row quarters.  In  fact,  the  more  searching  the 
inquiry  the  more  need  is  seen  of  further  and 
further  specializations.  New  fields  are  con- 
stantly opening.  While  the  telescope  is 
opening  to  view  countless  worlds  in  the  depth 
of  space,  the  microscope  is  making  revelations 
in  the  infinitesimal  world,  if  possible,  still  more 
wonderful.  And  beyond  the  range  even  of 
microscopic  inspection  Science  now  postulates 
an  ethereal  element,  filling  space,  whose  marvel- 
lous vibrations  give  us  light,  heat,  and  color, 
and  so  paradoxical  in  apparently  extreme 
tenuity  and  in  its  admantine  compactness  as 
to  challenge  as  yet  all  scientific  explanation. 

Thus  our  material  environment  is  not  only 
boundless  in  its  extent,  but  so  various  and 
mysterious  in  many  of  its  manifestations  that 
the  most  skilful  and  advanced  scientists  can, 
in  the  present  life,  only  begin  the  study  which 
ages  cannot  complete.  Agassiz,  Gray,  and 
Tyndall  each  in  a  different  department,  had  a 


The  Immortal  Life  83 

like  experience  of  limited  attainment  and  of 
boundless  unexplored  fields  opening  before 
them. 

Beethoven  entranced  the  world  with  his 
symphonies  and  sonatas,  but  he  felt  that  he 
had  only  entered  the  world  of  musical  combi- 
nations and  harmonies.  "  Music,"  said  he, 
"  ushers  me  into  the  portals  of  an  intellectual 
world,  always  ready  to  encompass  me,  but 
which  I  can  never  compass.  I  feel  that  there 
is  an  eternal  and  an  infinite  to  be  attained." 

A  like  sentiment  was  expressed  by  Sidney 
Lanier,  who  possessed  in  rare  measure  the  sen- 
sibility and  the  genius  of  both  the  musician 
and  the  poet.  Dying  in  early  manhood,  while 
his  powers  were  yet  unfolding,  he  left  a  manu- 
script, published  in  the  Boston  TransciHpt 
July  27,  1895,  from  which  we  make  the  follow- 
ing extract :  "  There  is  a  constant  effort  in 
man  to  relate  himself  to  the  infinite,  not  only 
in  the  cognitive  but  also  in  the  emotive  way, 
and  just  as  persistently.  We  wish  not  only  to 
think  it,  but  to  love  it.  It  may  be  that  our 
love  can  reach  nearer  to  its  object.  As  a 
philosophic  truth,  music  does  carry  our  emo- 
tion toward  the  infinite.  It  must  be  that 
there  exists  some  sort  of  relation  between 
pure  tones  and  the  spiritual  man,  by  reason 


84  The  Immortal  Life 

of  which  the  latter  is  stimulated  and  forced 
onward  toward  the  great  end  of  all  love  and 
admiration.  Thus,  music  becomes  a  moral 
agency." 

Such  is  the  testimony  not  only  of  men  of 
keen  sensibility  but  of  profound  philosophical 
insight.  "  The  consciousness  of  finiteness," 
says  Lotze,  "  has  always  oppressed  mankind." 
It  is  a  saying  of  Carlyle  :  "  Man's  unhappi- 
ness  comes  of  his  greatness.  It  is  because 
there  is  an  infinite  in  him,  which,  with  all  his 
cunning,  he  cannot  quite  bring  under  the 
finite." — Sartor  Resartus,    p.    121. 

The  Duke  of  Argyle  treats  of  the  same 
subject  from  the  philosophical  standpoint,  as 
follows : 

"  The  limiting  bars  against  which  we  beat 
could  not  be  felt  unless  there  were  something 
which  seeks  a  wider  scope.  It  is  as  if  these 
bars  were  a  limit  of  opportunity  rather  than  a 
boundary  of  powers.  The  animals  and  the 
lower  nature  of  man,  seek  nothing  beyond 
and  beside  the  objects  they  desire.  They  are 
satisfied  with  their  attainment.  But  with  the 
appetites  of  the  mind  it  is  different.  We  feel 
our  ignorance  and  helplessness,  not  because  we 
have  reached  the  limits  of  our  intellectual 
power,  but  because  we  cannot  reach  them,  and 


The  Immortal  Life  85 

because  the  desires  which  correspond  to  them 
are  not  satisfied.  This  is  true  of  all  the  higher 
powers  of  the  human  mind,  viewed  in  relation 
to  the  objects  of  their  desire.  They  are  never 
fully  attained,  nor  is  the  desire  for  them  fully 
satisfied.  In  physics,  the  existence  of  any 
pressure  is  the  indication  of  a  potential 
energy,  which,  though  doing  no  work,  is 
capable  of  doing  it.  So,  in  the  intellectual 
world,  the  sense  of  pressure  and  confinement 
is  the  index  of  powers  which  under  other  con- 
ditions are  capable  of  doing  what  they  cannot 
at  present.  Not  only  are  the  bars  such  as  can 
be  removed,  but  they  offer  in  certain  directions 
no  impediment  to  a  boundless  range  of  vision. 
It  is  said  the  finite  cannot  comprehend  the  in- 
finite. But  we  apprehend  a  reality  which  we 
cannot  comprehend,  as  when  we  negative  all 
limits.  It  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  appre- 
hensions of  space  and  time." —  U7iity  of 
Nature,  p.    127. 

Men  love  to  deal  with  the  vast  in  space  and 
time,  matching  their  powers  with  the  world's 
immensities.  The  geologist  traces  the  earth's 
changes  backward  through  millions  of  years, 
to  chaos,  the  assumed  starting-point  of  the 
present  order.  Even  beyond  this,  he  makes 
the   interrogation  :    "  Is   the   chaotic  fire-mist 


86  The  Immortal  Life 

the  absolute  beginning,  or  is  it  the  ashes  of 
previous  worlds  whose  story  had  ended,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  baptism  into  fresh  life  for 
a  new  career  of  evolving  worlds  ?  "  This  re- 
gression into  the  remote  past  only  stimulates 
Sir  William  Thomson,  Lord  Kelvin,  to  fore- 
cast, if  possible,  the  future  of  the  present  sys- 
tem. Finding  the  data  for  determining  when 
the  cosmic  forces  will  have  exhausted  their 
working  power,  and  the  system,  like  a  worn- 
out  chronometer,  will  have  stopped  movement, 
he  endeavors  to  ascertain  the  period  of  its  life. 
If,  indeed,  the  Creator  has  furnished  data  for 
such  computations,  it  would  seem  to  be  an  in- 
vitation to  use  them,  that  we  may  in  so  doing 
follow  His  footsteps  far  back  into  the  past 
and  on  into  the  future,  till  in  both  directions 
we  come  face  to  face  with  His  eternity.  It  is 
doubtless  His  purpose  that,  by  the  study  of  His 
works,  we  grow  in  mental  and  moral  stature 
and  enlarge  our  conceptions  of  Him  till  we 
realize  that  our  short  lives  here,  and  the  great 
epochs  of  human  history,  are  but  moments  in 
the  life  of  the  Everlasting.  Indeed,  it  belongs 
to  the  rational  mind,  so  far  as  possible,  to 
search  out  the  great  things  of  God  and  not 
give  our  lives  to  mere  conventionalities  and 
things  of  trifling  moment.     "  Give  me  a  great 


The  Immortal  Life  87 

thought,"  said  the  poet  Pindar,  "that  I  may 
Hve  upon  it."  The  author  or  the  orator  who 
takes  men  out  of  themselves  and  lifts  them 
above  the  commonplace  of  a  humdrum  life 
into  larger  sympathies  and  broad  ranges  of 
thought,  is  a  benefactor.  Nor  does  the  con- 
templation of  things  majestic  and  sublime  be- 
little man's  estimate  of  his  own  nature.  The 
mountain  summit  that  commands  the  widest 
expanse  may  at  first  seem  to  dwarf  him  into 
insignificance.  But,  on  surveying  the  scene, 
its  very  sublimities  at  length  give  a  sense  of 
power  and  of  larger  life.  In  fact,  it  is  the  ma- 
jestic that  touches  the  deeper  emotions,  and 
brings  into  consciousness  the  greatness  of 
man,  giving  elevation  and  repose  even  to  a 
depressed  and  troubled  spirit. 

The  experience  of  F.  W.  Robertson,  when 
in  a  fearful  thunderstorm  in  the  Alps,  well 
illustrates  this  fact.  We  can  here  give  only  a 
brief  extract  from  his  own  eloquent  description 
of  it. 

He  was  in  a  deep  valley,  entirely  alone,  when 
the  storm  suddenly  came  upon  him:  "The 
vultures  at  once  took  alarm  and  came  plun- 
ging down  from  the  heights,  and  flocks  of 
chamois  startled  the  solitude  with  their  cries 
of  fear.     The  mountain  suddenly  grew  dark, 


88  The  Immortal  Life 

and  took  apparent  motion  from  the  flying 
clouds  that  were  wreathing  the  summits.  Then 
came  the  blinding  flashes  of  the  blue  lightning, 
that  streamed  down  the  mountain  sides,  with 
crashing  peals  of  thunder,  as  if  the  mountain 
must  give  way.  It  was  a  scene  of  awful 
grandeur."  But,  instead  of  being  prostrated 
with  abject  fear,  a  strange  sympathy,  with 
mingled  emotions,  took  possession  of  him. 
"  Awe  and  triumph,  defiance  of  danger  and 
contempt  of  pain — pride,  rapture,  and  intense 
repose." 

He  had  been  passing  through  a  period  of 
depression  and  conflict  bordering  on  despair. 
The  warring  elements  brought  relief  and  re- 
stored him  to  himself.  In  the  very  stress  and 
rage  of  the  storm  he  cried  out:  "There! 
there  !  all  this  was  in  my  heart  but  it  was 
never  said  out  till  now."  The  very  violence 
of  the  scene  seemed  to  give  expression  to  the 
storm  that  had  raged  within,  bringing  thereby 
strength  and  repose. — Lectures  and  Addresses, 
p.  124. 

The  varying  moods  of  the  human  mind  have 
their  counterpart  in  Nature,  which  not  infre- 
quently gives  expression  to  states  that  have 
not  risen  unto  distinct  consciousness,  and 
thereby  reveals    man   to    himself.     Thus   the 


The  Immortal  Life  89 

multitudinous  aspects  of  Nature  are  suited  to 
different  temperaments.  A  thunderstorm  in 
the  Alps  would  not  have  given  expression  and 
relief  to  Wordsworth,  especially  after  his  im- 
pulsive and  adventurous  youth  had  passed  into 
the  calm  and  contemplative  habit  of  mature 
years.  It  was  in  the  vale  of  Grasmere,  with 
its  lake  unruffled  by  the  winds,  reflecting  as 
in  a  mirror  the  green  meadows,  the  lofty 
Helvellyn,  and  the  blue  sky,  that  he  was  at 
home  and  at  rest.  And  whatever  the  out- 
ward aspect,  it  was  to  him  a  medium  through 
which  the  higher  realities,  unseen,  infinite,  and 
spiritual  were  revealed,  giving 

"  A  sense  sublime  of   something   far   more   deeply   in- 
terfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns 
And  the  round  ocean  and  the  living  air 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  in  the  mind  of  man." 

The  supreme  function  of  Nature  is  its  spir- 
itually suggestive  and  revealing  character,  and 
sometimes  the  revealing  object,  however  sub- 
lime in  itself,  quite  vanishes  from  sight  by  rea- 
son of  the  greater  sublimity  of  the  object  it 
reveals. 

This  was  the  experience  of  Coleridge  when 
gazing  upon   Mount  Blanc  from  the  vale  of 


go  The  Immortal  Life 

Chamouni :  "  Ah,  dread  and  silent  mount !  I 
gazed  upon  thee  till  thou,  still  present  to  the 
bodily  sense,  didst  vanish  from  my  sight.  En- 
tranced in  prayer,  I  worshipped  the  Invisible 
alone."  Even  Tyndall  and  Voltaire  confessed 
that,  under  the  solemn  heights  of  Matterhorn, 
they  felt  an  almost  irresistible  impulse  to  wor- 
ship. They  saw  in  those  majestic  heights  the 
symbo  of  the  Infinite,  and  they  bowed  in  wor- 
ship. The  deep  emotions  awakened  by  the 
sublimities  of  Nature  seem  to  give  clearness 
and  force  even  to  intellectual  convictions  be- 
yond the  power  of  logic,  and  even  without  its 
aid.  The  heart,  in  its  fulness  of  power,  can 
and  often  will  dispense  with  dialectics,  as  the 
electric  light  can  dismiss  the  candle.  Without 
conscious  reasoning  the  spirit  may  go  straight 
to  its  object.  At  any  rate,  if  sensibility  with- 
out interpreting  thought  is  often  vague, 
thought  without  sensibility  is  empty  of  con- 
tent. We  can  feel  an  infinite  we  cannot 
measure.  Many  a  man  who  had  not  learned 
to  worship  the  God  of  the  Bible  has  in  his 
heart  erected  an  altar  "  to  the  Unknown  God." 
The  imagination,  as  well  as  feeling  and  in- 
tellect, is  correlated  to  the  Infinite.  Lord 
Bishop  Westcott  says  of  the  poet :  "  He  is 
one  who  sees  the  Infinite  in  things.     Life  and 


The  Immortal  Life  91 

Nature  have  an  infinite  and  eternal  meaning, 
and  the  poet  makes  us  see  it.  The  office  of 
art  is  to  present  the  truth  of  things  under  the 
aspect  of  beauty  ;  to  bring  before  us  the  world 
as  God  made  it,  when  all  was  beauty." 

But  the  imagination  also  creates  ideals  of  its 
own,  rising  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  perfection 
which  is  not  reached  in  this  mortal  life.  As 
Beethoven  was  wont  to  revel  in  "  a  world  of 
harmonies  that  always  encompassed  him,  but 
which  he  could  never  compass,"  so  Michael 
Angelo,  at  eighty-nine,  was  creating  ideals  he 
could  not  embody  in  concrete  form.  Nothing 
he  had  completed  was  the  measure  of  his 
capacity,  for  there  were  in  his  brain,  statues, 
frescoes,  and  cathedral  domes  he  could  not 
yet  realize  in  fact.  This  constant  progression 
of  the  ideal  life,  this  broader  and  broader  out- 
look into  the  realm  of  possibilities — what  is  it 
but  the  prophecy  of  a  career  begun  but  not 
completed  ?  This  that  turns  present  failures 
into  courage  and  hope, — 

"What  I  aspired  to  be  and  was  not,  comforts  me." 

"  On  the  earth  the  broken  arch, 

In  the  heavens  the  perfect  round." 

It  is  well  known  that  men  in  oreneral  have 
a   sort    of   subconscious    sense   of   truth    and 


92  The  Immortal  Life 

realities,  which  they  do  not  distinctly  recognize 
until  men  of  deeper  insight  have  given  them 
utterance.  A  Shakespeare,  a  Wordsworth, 
and  a  Tennyson  give  clear  expression  to 
truths  to  which  multitudes  give  ready  re- 
sponse. "  Yes,  that  was  in  my  mind,  but  I 
could  never  give  it  shape  in  words. "  The  poet 
and  the  seer  are  often  the  unconscious  inter- 
preters of  what  belongs  to  humanity,  but  which 
lies  hidden,  awaiting  disclosure  by  some  mas- 
ter-mind. But  who  can  tell  how  much  is 
latent  in  the  mind  of  the  poet  and  the  seer, 
that,  by  some  incident  or  flash  of  intuition,  is 
to  come  into  clear  consciousness  ?  Further- 
more, all  deep  penetrations  into  the  hidden 
mysteries  of  the  Universe  are  also  further  dis- 
closures of  the  capabilities  of  the  human  mind, 
— the  Infinite  without  calling  to  the  Infinite 
within. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  boundless  range 
open  to  our  intellectual  and  aesthetic  life  and 
to  the  creative  imagination.  But  who  can 
assign  the  limits  to  human  affection?  It  is  a 
common  experience  that  the  death  of  a  friend, 
instead  of  extinguishing,  intensifies  the  love  of 
survivors. 

Jean  Paul  Richter  went  from  the  grave  of 
his  son  to  his  chamber,  and  wrote  his  Kasse- 


The  Immortal  Life  93 

perrer  Thai.  Death  had  deepened  his  assur- 
ance that  the  separation  was  not  final,  and  his 
work  was  an  expression  of  deepened  affection 
and  of  hope  he  wished  others  to  share. 

The  eminent  theologian  and  philosopher, 
Schleiermacher,  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  so  far 
under  the  influence  of  pantheistic  ideas  as  to 
lose  his  faith  in  a  continuous  personal  life  after 
death.  It  was  to  be  lost  as  an  individual  life, 
and  merged  in  the  divine  and  impersonal  life  of 
the  world.  This  disqualified  him  to  give  con- 
solation to  those  deeply  afflicted.  This  he 
felt  to  his  sorrow  in  the  case  of  a  very  near 
friend,  Henriette  von  Machenfels,  who  had 
lost  her  husband  three  years  after  her  marriage. 
She  had  revered  Schleiermacher  for  his  great- 
ness and  had  trusted  implicitly  in  his  counsel. 
Dr.  Marti neau,  in  Studies  hi  Religion,  gives  ex- 
tracts from  the  correspondence  between  him 
and  his  friend,  who  had  besought  him  to  give 
her  some  assurance  of  a  future  life  and  of  a 
possible  reunion  in  another  world.  We  can 
only  indicate,  by  brief  extracts,  the  character 
of  this  correspondence.  She  writes  :  "  Give 
me  if  you  can  the  assurance  of  finding  and 
knowing  him  again  :  it  is  for  this  that  I  live. 
It  is  the  only  outlook  that  sheds  light  on  my 
dark    life.      When    I    think  his   soul   is  quite 


94  The  Immortal  Life 

resolved  into  the  '  Great  All,'  that  the  old  is 
quite  gone  by  and  will  never  come  to  recogni- 
tion again, — Oh  !  Schleier,  this  I  cannot  bear. 
— That  dear  personal  life  which  is  all  I  know, 
he  is  Ehrenfried  no  more  !  Gone  to  his  God 
not  to  be  kept  safe,  but  to  be  forever  lost  in 
him  !  "  Schleiermacher's  attempts  at  consola- 
tion seemed  but  mockery  of  her  intense  love. 
She  asked  for  bread.  He  gave  her  a  stone. 
Two  souls  had  become  one  in  an  intense  and 
common  life,  and  to  extinguish  one  was  to 
blight  the  other,  leaving  the  tenderest  affection 
without  an  object.  See  Martineau's  Shcdzes 
in  Religion,  ii.,  p.  336-9. 

Will  it  be  said  such  affection  is  excessive, 
and  that  time  soon  heals  the  wounds  of  the 
heart?  But  a  loveless  demonstration  may  be 
as  deep  and  persistent.  As  these  lines  are 
being  written,  a  friend  near  by  is  looking  with 
moistened  eyes  at  a  little  piece  of  needle-work 
wrought  by  a  sister  fifty  years  ago.  The 
needle  remains  just  where  it  was  left  by  the 
hand  that  then  ended  its  work  with  her  life. 
It  was  unfinished  and  valueless  in  itself,  but  it 
is  kept  as  a  sacred  treasure.  The  half-cen- 
tury has  wrought  great  changes  in  individuals 
and  in  empires,  but  this  little  memento  wit- 
nesses  to  an  unchanging  love  that  takes  no 


The  Immortal  Life  95 

account  of  time  or  space.  Coleridge  said  of 
Dorothy,  the  sister  of  Wordsworth, — "  Her 
spirit  was  a  mansion  for  all  lovely  forms,  a 
dwelling  place  for  all  sweet  sounds  and  harmo- 
nies." She  gave  the  treasures  of  her  mind  and 
the  wealth  of  her  love  to  her  brother,  making 
any  sacrifice  for  him  a  delight.  This  affection 
was  fully  reciprocated  by  him.  In  a  letter  to 
her  he  writes  :  "  The  happiness  I  experience 
in  communion  with  you  makes  the  moments 
worth  ages."  What  measure  is  there  for  such 
love  ?  It  is  infinite.  Nor  is  such  affection 
abnormal  or  excessive.  On  the  contrary,  as 
men  grow  into  larger  and  nobler  manhood  we 
are  to  expect  that  their  affections,  which  are 
the  crowning  glory  of  men,  will  grow  in  depth 
and  tenderness.  Thus  every  part  of  man's 
rational  nature — intellectual,  aesthetic,  and 
social — seems  made  for  the  infinite. 

This  is  emphatically  true  of  man  as  a  re- 
ligious being,  made  in  the  image  of  God  to 
share  His  infinite  life.  This  will  be  the  subject 
of  the  next  chapter. 


THE  PROPER  HUMAN  LIFE,  ONE 
WITH  THE  LIFE  OF  GOD 


"  Religion  is  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man." 

Maine. 

"  The  soul  of  man  in  the  liighest  sense  is  a  vast  capacity  of  God."' 

Professor  Henry  Drummond. 

"  The   human  blossoms   into   the   divine,    and    thereby   perfects 
humanity." 

Wood. 


97 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PROPER  HUMAN  LIFE,  ONE  WITH 
THE  LIFE  OF  GOD 

IN  the  Bible  account  of  the  creation    (^Gen. 
I  :  27)  we  read  :      "So  God  created  man 
in  His  own  image." 

This  is  a  remarkable  record,  made  in  very 
early  time.  It  attributes  to  man  a  dignity  and 
worth  above  all  other  creatures.  Man  the 
image  of  God  !  At  first  view,  this  seems  pre- 
posterous, especially  as  the  same  record  exalts 
God  as  the  Creator  of  the  world,  the  Eternal,  the 
Almighty,  and  as  possessing  all  moral  perfec- 
tions. It  seems  strange,  therefore,  that  man — 
who  is  of  yesterday  and  may  die  to-morrow, 
who  is  not  only  frail  but  sinful,  and  who  often 
debases  himself  below  the  animal — should  be 
given  in  the  same  record  so  wonderful  a  dis- 
tinction. Can  there  be  any  possible  evidence, 
outside  the  Bible,  that  confirms  this  testimony  ? 
There  is  a  still  older  record,  not  only  contain- 
ing such  evidence,  but  furnishing  positive  proof 

99 


loo  The  Immortal  Life 

of  its  truth.  This  record  is  creation  itself, — a 
volume  direct  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator. 

This  proof  rests  on  a  twofold  basis,  the 
soundness  of  which  few  persons  will  now 
question. 

First,  the  order  of  the  creation  reveals  a 
Rational  Intelligence  as  its  author.  Second,  the 
fact  that  men  interpret  this  order  in  terms  of 
human  thought,  shows  that  their  intelligence, 
as  rational,  is  similar  in  kind.  The  first  posi- 
tion, that  the  order  of  creation  is  a  rational 
order,  revealing  a  Rational  Intelligence  as  its 
author,  needs  here  no  proof.  All  science  takes 
it  for  granted  in  claiming  to  interpret  it.  For 
unless  this  order  is  the  expression  of  an  intel- 
ligence that  is  rational,  in  the  common  use  of 
the  term,  science  could  have  no  standing  what- 
ever. All  sound  philosophy  affirms  that  a  ra- 
tional product  shows  a  rational  intelligence  as 
its  cause. 

Our  purpose  now  is  to  establish  the  proof 
of  the  second  position.  Of  course  it  is  the 
mind,  not  the  body,  of  man  that  bears  the 
divine  image,  and  our  claim  is  that  the  soul  of 
man,  as  rational,  can  enter  into  and  share  the 
divine  life  and  so  far  can  be  one  with  it. 

It  will  be  conceded  that  when  one  mind  ex- 
presses itself  in  some  form  of  language  which 


The  Immortal  Life  loi 

another  mind  interprets  in  terms  of  its  own 
consciousness,  there  must  be  the  relationship 
of  Hkeness  between  them.  For  example,  we 
in  some  manner  interpret  the  mind  of  animals, 
as  expressed  by  them,  in  various  forms  of 
natural  language,  and  the}^  in  like  manner 
interpret  us,  because  we  have  a  like  animal 
nature.  But  they  cannot  enter  with  us  into 
the  realm  of  truth,  which  is  the  realm  of 
spiritual  realities,  because  they  possess  no 
spiritual  nature.  For  the  same  reason,  if  the 
Most  High  has  a  realm  of  thought  and  life 
that  is  absolute  and  unconditioned,  we  cannot 
enter  with  Him  into  that  realm,  since  it  is  out 
of  all  relation  to  our  finite  intellieence.  But 
the  world's  order  reveals  an  intelligence  an- 
swering to  our  own,  since  we  can  interpret  it 
in  terms  of  human  thought.  Here,  then,  the 
human  and  the  divine  intelligences  correspond, 
and  are  in  communication  as  truly  as  when 
two  persons,  through  some  form  of  language, 
communicate  with  and  understand  each  other. 
Now,  if  the  world  is  God's  creation,  it  answers 
to  His  creative  thought  and  is  therefore  truth 
to  Him  ;  and,  so  far  as  we  interpret  it  rightly  in 
terms  of  human  thought,  it  is  truth  to  us.  It 
follows  that  in  the  order  of  the  world  and  in 
the  structure  of  our  mind  as  correlated  to  it, 


I02  The  Immortal  Life 

there  is  such  correspondence  as  to  imply  com- 
mon principles  of  intelHgence,  and  within  the 
cosmic  order  a  common  standard  of  truth. 
There  is,  then,  so  far,  a  likeness  between  the 
human  and  divine  intelligences.  Furthermore, 
we  see  distinctly  in  both  Nature  and  the  human 
mind,  the  same  essential  characteristics  of  ra- 
tionality. It  belongs  to  the  rational  mind  to  seek 
higher  and  higher  forms  of  unity.  For  example, 
we,  as  rational,  interpret  and  combine  our  sensa- 
tions, as  given  by  external  objects,  into  broader 
conceptions,  comprising  the  various  qualities 
of  an  object.  Accordingly,  we  combine  the 
form,  the  color,  the  flavor,  etc.,  of  the  orange 
into  a  single  conception,  representing  the 
orange  as  a  concrete  unity.  A  still  higher 
unity  of  thought  associates  the  orange  with  its 
surroundings, — with  the  seed  and  soil  from 
which  it  springs,  with  the  climate  where  it 
grows,  and  the  conditions  of  its  development 
and  its  practical  uses.  It  is  in  this  way  we 
enlarge  our  rational  knowledge,  including 
many  particulars  in  one  conception  and  many 
conceptions  in  judgments  more  and  more 
comprehensive,  until  we  reach  the  broadest 
possible  generalizations.  By  these  processes 
we  attain  higher  and  higher  unities  of  thought, 
corresponding  to  unities  of  fact  in  the  world 


The  Immortal  Life  103 

without.  Were  our  mind,  through  larger  de- 
velopment and  wider  knowledge,  capacious 
enough  to  unify  all  the  facts  and  relations  of 
the  world,  we  could  comprehend  all  in  a  single 
thought,  the  thought  representing  in  conscious- 
ness the  one  cosmic  system. 

We  cannot  suppose  the  Most  High  attains 
omniscience  by  these  laborious  processes. 
They  are  our  slow  steps  of  progress,  as  finite 
creatures.  Still,  in  this  world  of  space  and 
time  we  see  a  like  progression,  to  higher  and 
higher  unities.  Matter,  it  is  believed,  was  at 
first  diffused  and  chaotic,  and  by  evolutionary 
process  was  brought  in  course  of  time,  con- 
structively, to  various  forms  of  unity.  We  see 
this  in  the  lower  kingdoms,  in  chemical  union, 
in  crystallization,  in  the  simple  vegetal  organ- 
isms. But  there  was  also  advance  in  com- 
plexity and  unity,  till  all  the  kingdoms  with 
their  manifold  relations  were  brought  into  the 
marvellous  unity  we  call  the  Universe.  This 
progression  we  now  see  has  been  from  the 
first  toward  a  spiritual  kingdom,  and  toward 
one  supreme  end  in  that  kingdom  which  is  of 
ethical  and  absolute  value,  and  all  these  king- 
doms subserve  it,  so  that  the  mind,  which  is 
large  enough  to  construct  such  a  unity,  must 
comprehend  all  in  a  single  thought.     We  see, 


104  The  Immortal  Life 

therefore,  in  the  progressive  upbuilding  of  the 
cosmic  system  on  a  vast  scale,  the  same  deci- 
sive stamp  of  rationality ,  which  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  human  mind  in  its  constructive 
processes  of  thought  and  work. 

Now,  it  is  the  especial  function  of  the  human 
mind  to  interpret  the  divine  order  of  Nature 
into  these  unities  of  thought  and  fact.  Such 
is  the  work  of  science  itself.  Accordingly,  as 
men  shall  realize  these  divine  unities  embodied 
in  the  world,  the  human  and  the  divine  intelli- 
gences will  come  into  closer  contact,  and  into 
more  complete  communication  and  realized 
correspondence.  So  man  is  fitted  by  the  very 
structure  of  his  mind  to  share  what  we  may  term 
the  intellectual  life  of  God,  as  manifest  in  the 
ordered  relations  of  the  world. 

But  there  is  a  higher  form  of  the  divine  life 
than  the  intellectual  which  men  are  made  to 
share.  This  is  revealed  in  the  finer  propor- 
tions and  harmonies  of  the  world — in  those 
forms,  colors,  motions,  and  tones  that  address 
our  aesthetic  nature,  and  awaken  the  sense  of 
beauty.  Such  harmonies  give  a  keener  de- 
light than  those  relations  that  address  only  the 
intellect.  Though  they  reach  us  through  the 
senses,  and  in  some  measure  also  through 
the  intellect,  they  strike  deeper  and  stir  spirit- 


The  Immortal  Life  105 

ual  emotions.  They  are  in  fact  spiritually  dis- 
cerned. Animals  with  keener  senses  than  ours 
have  no  sense  of  beauty  because  they  lack  the 
sensibilities  of  a  spiritual  nature.  The  dog 
feels  the  sensational  thrill  at  the  strikingf  of  a 
bell.  The  thrush  utters  sweet  musical  notes 
and  the  peacock  spreads  his  tail  of  gorgeous 
colors.  But  having  no  spiritual  sensibility  and 
no  ideal  of  beauty  they  have  no  appreciation  of 
the  beautiful  in  what  they  see,  hear,  or  display. 
Man  finds  himself  in  an  environment  of 
beauty,  and  in  its  appreciation  he  realizes  a 
nobler  life  than  that  of  the  sensuous  or  the 
intellectual.  We  wonder  at  the  affluence  of 
beauty  that  is  lavished  upon  this  once  form- 
less and  chaotic  world.  We  find  it  every- 
where, and  not  as  a  mere  fringe  or  decorative 
bordering  of  the  useful,  or  a  surface  adorn- 
ment for  the  superficial  observer.  It  enters 
into  the  structure  of  the  world,  into  its  secret 
processes,  and  into  its  general  economy.  The 
lowest  kingdom  has  its  manifold  forms  of 
crystallization  after  geometric  ideals.  The 
snow-flake  and  the  frost-work  on  the  window- 
pane,  show  the  same  tendency,  as  if  it  were  a 
passion  in  Nature  to  embody  ideals  of  beauty. 
The  law  of  gravity  is  a  law  of  harmony  :  alike 
for   atoms    and    for   worlds.      The   mightiest 


io6  The  Immortal  Life 

forces  in  their  interplay  and  the  vast  magni- 
tudes in  their  movements  in  space,  take  lines  of 
grace  and  beauty.  If  one  on  a  summer  even- 
ing stand  under  the  open  sky  and  contem- 
plate the  whole  aspect  of  things,  he  is 
impressed  by  the  order,  the  silence,  and  the 
repose  in  which  the  great  Universe  with  its 
resistless  energ-ies  moves  on. 

The  ethereal  element  that  from  remote  dis- 
tances touches  our  eyes  with  light  and  color,  in 
its  infinitesimal  vibrations  of  different  lengths 
but  of  accordant  movements,  seems  a  vast 
musical  instrument  attuned  to  the  finest  har- 
monies and  touched  by  the  finger  of  God.  In 
thus  bringing  to  us  the  splendors  of  light  and 
color,  by  appliances  so  vast,  so  minute  and 
exact  in  their  movement,  does  He  not  manifest 
His  own  love  of  harmony  and  is  He  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  delight  He  gives  to  His 
rational  creation?  But  what  a  wealth  of 
beauty  He  appreciates  that  is  beyond  our 
reach  !  We  think  of  primeval  forests,  lifting 
their  verdure  and  bloom  far  from  the  abodes 
of  men,  often  spanned  by  rainbows  and 
flushed  by  sunsets  that  no  human  eye  be- 
holds ;  of  rare  flowers  in  wilderness  places  ;  of 
myriads  of  insect  voices  that  on  a  summer's 
night    break    its    stillness    with    rythmic    and 


The  Immortal  Life  107 

happy  responses,  when  the  rest  of  the  world  is 
asleep.  How  manifest  that  He,  who  thus  fills 
space  and  time  with  beauty  and  song  and  ex- 
uberant life  of  which  He  alone  can  be  the 
appreciative  witness,  must  Himself  delight  in 
them.  The  flowers  hidden  from  us  He  tints 
as  sweetly  as  those  we  see  by  the  way  side. 
Many  a  wild  bird  of  the  wood  is  more  beauti- 
ful than  those  that  sing  in  our  cages  ;  and  the 
leaves  of  the  forest  are  woven  as  deftly  after 
their  pattern  as  those  that  throw  their  shade 
upon  our  lawns.  Beyond  the  utmost  range  of 
our  senses,  away  in  the  measureless  spaces,  He 
works  out  His  ideals  of  beauty  as  perfectly  as 
before  our  eyes.  In  fact,  this  infinity  of  beauty 
which  we  cannot  see,  but  which  we  know  He 
has  brought  into  being,  and  which  He  enjoys, 
gives  us  a  sense  of  the  fulness  of  its  aesthetic 
life  that  has  no  measure  but  infinity.  We  are 
sure  that  He  loves  beauty  for  its  own  sake,  as 
well  as  for  the  pleasure  it  gives  to  us,  and  that 
His  satisfaction  in  it  must  be  infinitely  greater 
than  ours.  But  He  has  qualified  us  to  appre- 
hend in  imao^ination  what  our  senses  cannot 
reach,  and  by  this  inner  vision  to  know  of  a 
vast  wealth  of  beauty  which  God  directly  sees, 
and  so,  in  thought,  we  share  in  the  fulness  of 
His  aesthetic  life. 


io8  The  Immortal  Life 

Nor  can  we  be  too  grateful  for  this  high 
privilege.  If  our  environment  were  crude  and 
repellant,  meeting  only  the  wants  of  our  ani- 
mal nature  but  devoid  of  beauty,  this  would 
be  to  us  an  unlovely,  desolate  world,  out  of 
harmony  with  our  nobler  nature.  We  could 
never  be  at  home  in  such  a  world.  But  now 
we  feel  on  every  hand  the  touch  of  a  kindly 
Spirit  in  sympathy  with  us,  seeking  to  refine 
and  ennoble  us  by  gentle  and  delicate  minis- 
trations in  the  smallest  things,  and  to  uplift  us 
by  the  grandeur  of  His  mountains  and  His 
firmament.  But  He  does  not  minister  to  us  as 
mere  passive  observers  of  His  beautiful  crea- 
tion ;  he  qualifies  and  inspires  us  to  create  a 
world  of  our  own,  and  to  put  into  our  ideals 
the  same  principles  of  beauty  and  harmony 
that  He  applies  in  His  great  cosmic  upbuilding. 

We  can  never,  indeed,  equal  the  Divine 
Artist,  but  our  conscious  failures  intensify  our 
love  of  the  excellence  we  do  not  reach,  and  we 
set  our  faces  toward  the  perfect  beauty  which 
dwells  only  in  the  mind  of  God.  This  spiritual 
vision  takes  us  above  our  own  ideals,  above  all 
concrete  forms  of  beauty,  into  the  spiritual 
realm,  to  enter  into  that  divine  aesthetic  life 
that  can  have  no  finite  expression. 

But  there  is  still  another  form  of  the  divine 


The  Immortal  Life  109 

life,  far  transcending  the  intellectual  and  aes- 
thetic. In  this,  too,  we  are  made  to  share 
with  the  Most  High.  It  is  His  ethical  life, 
comprising  those  moi^al  qualities  —  justice, 
righteousness,  mercy,  love — which  belong  only 
to  personal  beings.  When  all  these  qualities 
of  character  are  united  in  perfect  harmony, 
they  may  be  called  the  "  Beauty  of  Holiness." 
But  while  a  symmetrical  character  is  beautiful, 
we  are  not  to  identify  the  ro  fxa\6v  of  the 
Greeks  with  holiness.  Beauty,  of  the  highest 
order,  has  its  place  in  the  moral  realm.  No 
character  has  right  proportions  unless  right- 
eousness is  the  dominant  element.  But 
righteousness  is  conformity  to  ethical,  not  to 
aesthetic,  law,  and  while  God  delights  in  beauty, 
yet  righteousness  and  love  are  supreme  in  His 
character  and  His  administration.  Now,  right- 
eousness and  love,  as  ethical  qualities,  properly 
belong  to  all  rational  beings,  of  whatever  rank 
or  in  whatever  world  they  may  dwell.  They 
are  essentially  of  the  same  nature,  whether  in 
men,  angels,  or  God.  Accordingly,  so  far  as 
men  are  righteotLs,  they  are  like  God  in  char- 
acter and  possess  a  kindred  life.  There  is 
evidence  of  God's  righteousness  in  the  moral 
order  of  the  world.  Matthew  Arnold  thus 
expressed  the  common  conviction  of  mankind  : 


no  The  Immortal  Life 

"  There  is  a  Power,  the  Eternal,  not  ourselves, 
that  makes  for  righteousness."  This  conclu- 
sion he  seems  to  have  reached  by  observing 
the  Providential  order  in  human  history.  But 
the  very  structure  of  the  world  illustrates  the 
same  fact,  inasmuch  as  its  kingdoms  are  so 
ordered  as  to  embody  the  true  ethical  prin- 
ciple, the  lower  being  subordinated  to  the 
higher  and  all  to  the  highest.  Thus,  though 
Nature  itself  is  non-moral,  the  Power  that 
orders  it  has  conformed  strictly  to  the  princi- 
ciple  of  righteousness,  for  the  lowest  kingdom, 
the  mineral,  is  made  subordinate  to  the  vege- 
tal, the  vegetal  to  the  animal,  and  all  to  man. 
Now,  since  the  supreme  end  of  man  is  to  be- 
come righteous  like  his  Maker,  it  is  of  great 
interest  to  see  that  the  whole  structure  and 
movement  of  the  world  is  ordered  in  the  in- 
terest of  righteousness.  Thus  the  formative 
and  governing  principle  of  creation  illustrates 
the  righteousness  of  the  Creator,  so  that  this 
important  truth  rests  not  merely  on  the  gen- 
eral course  of  human  history,  but  also  on  the 
world's  structure  and  foundations.  Indeed, 
men  of  insight,  whether  theists  like  Carlyle,  or 
atheists  like  Strauss,  have  on  some  ground 
recognized  the  same  fact.  Such  revelations 
are    distinctly    made,    whether    through     the 


The  Immortal  Life  m 

moral  nature  of  man  or  the  divine  order  of 
the  world.  Still,  the  most  effective  revelations 
may  be  supernatural.  God,  while  immanent 
in  Nature,  transcends  its  limitations.  Man 
also,  as  a  moral  being,  as  we  have  shown,  is 
above  Nature.  It  would  be  unreasonable, 
therefore,  to  assume  the  impossibility  of  divine 
revelations  on  this  higher  spiritual  plane,  as  if 
the  revealing  agency  of  Nature  exhausted  the 
divine  resources  for  communicating  with  man. 
Certainly  the  natural  order  does  not  limit  the 
aspirations  of  men  for  divine  fellowship. 
What  devout  mind,  in  interpreting  Nature, 
does  not  recognize  a  spiritual  presence  dis- 
tinct from  and  above  Nature,  and  come  into 
fellowship  with  it  ?  Is  not  the  experience  and 
the  fellowship  thus  attained,  in  fact,  the  most 
intimate  and  transforming-,  enterino-  most 
deeply  into  the  life  of  God  ?  Knowing  that 
He  understands  our  inmost  thought  and  feel- 
ing, we  can  give  forth  to  Him  our  thought, 
feeling,  and  affection,  not  expressed  in  lan- 
guage, not  to  be  uttered  in  words,  but  which 
the  Omniscient  One  knows  and  accepts  as  the 
offspring  of  the  heart.  The  natural  order  may 
have  led  up  to  this  communion  of  spirit  with 
spirit,  but,  having  served  its  end,  the  natural 
drops  out  of  sight  and  mind,  giving  place  to 


112  The  Immortal  Life 

the  purely  spiritual.  What  if,  in  this  fellow- 
ship of  the  finite  with  the  Infinite,  man  re- 
ceives a  fulness  and  power  of  life  that  clears 
away  all  obstructions,  overflowing  all  the 
natural  channels  of  communication  ?  It  is  not 
the  less  real  because  divine  forces  and  illumi- 
nations have  wrought  a  deeper  consciousness, 
and  lifted  the  spirit  above  instrumentalities 
that  have  before  served  it.  Nay,  is  not  the 
best  life  of  man  purely  spiritual  ?  When 
Beethoven  apprehended  and  longed  to  ex- 
press the  infinity  of  musical  combinations  and 
harmonies,  which  he  said  always  encompassed 
him,  but  which  he  could  not  compass  or  shape 
into  definite  thought,  had  he  not  an  inner  con- 
scious life  that  was  real,  and  deeper  than  any 
to  which  he  could  give  expression  ? 

Why  may  not  the  saint,  who  has  tried  to  in- 
terpret to  others  his  thoughts  of  God,  have 
felt  a  sense  of  the  fulness  of  the  divine  life 
that  encompassed  him,  but  which  he  could  not 
compass  or  shape  into  a  definite  thought  ? 
From  the  depths  of  his  consciousness  he  could 
give  response,  as  "deep  calleth  unto  deep." 
Still,  the  highest  moral  perfections  of  God 
must  take  a  higher  form  of  revelation  to  man- 
kind than  Nature.  It  must  be  distinctly  Z^/'- 
sona I  a.nd  Jmman.     And  since  the  Most  High 


The  Immortal  Life  113 

evidently  desired  to  come  into  close  and  inti- 
mate communication  with  mankind,  we  might 
expect  him  to  supply  such  a  medium  for  his 
self-revelation.  Everything  points  to  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  supplementary  revelation  thus 
needed.  Even  Mr.  Mill  saw  in  Christ  a  divine 
manifestation  superior  to  that  of  the  natural 
order.  The  personal  life  of  God  could  be  best 
expressed  in  the  pure,  holy  life  of  Christ  as  a 
perfect  ina7i.  He  was  not  only  a  superior  man, 
but  he  spake  and  lived  as  one  in  close  fellow- 
ship with  God,  so  that  the  term  ^'  Immanuel, 
God  with  us,''  seemed  to  express  His  nature 
and  character.  At  least,  in  our  present  state 
we  can  expect  no  clearer  manifestation  of  the 
divine  moral  perfections.  And  since  He  was 
man  in  direct  fellowship  with  the  divine  life  it 
shows  that  man  as  man  can  attain  to  a  life 
that  is  one  with  that  of  God.  We  do  not 
mean  that  men  may  experience  a  life  the  same 
in  measztre,  but  the  same  in  kind. 

Now,  if  man  may  realize  in  himself  a  life  that 
is  one  with  that  of  God,  he  is  a  being  of  worth 
and  dignity  beyond  our  highest  conceptions. 
This  supreme  life,  for  which  the  world  was  made, 
cannot  be  orig^inated  to  be  forever  extingfuished. 
The  divine  life  in  man,  the  highest  in  kind  and 
most  precious  to  God,  He  will  not  destroy. 


AS  A  RELIGIOUS  AND  ETHICAL 
BEING,  MAN  SUSTAINS  A  DIRECT 
AND  FUNDAMENTAL  RELATION 
TO  GOD,  WHICH  MEANS  PERMA- 
NENCE 

"  In  every  country,  with  all  people,  in  all  races  we  find  the  belief 
in  beings  superior  to  man,  and  influencing  his  destiny,  for  good  or 
evil.  Everywhere  we  find  belief  in  another  life  succeeding  the 
actual  life.  These  two  notions  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  religion. 
We  can  say  then  of  man  that  he  is  certainly  religious." 

QuATREFAGES,  Natural  History  of  Man ^  p.  135. 

"  Fellowship  with  the  Eternal  cannot  but  be  eternal,  and  such 
fellowship  is  of  the  very  essence  of  the  moral  life." 

Seth's  Ethical  Principles,  p.  460. 


115 


CHAPTER  VII 

AS  A  RELIGIOUS  AND  ETHICAL  BEING, 
MAN  SUSTAINS  A  DIRECT  AND  FUN- 
DAMENTAL  RELATION  TO  GOD,  WHICH 
MEANS  PERMANENCE 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  we  showed  that,  in 
interpreting  the  rational  order  of  the 
world,  man  comes  into  intelligent  contact  with 
the  divine  life,  as  revealed  therein,  and  thus 
proves  his  kinship  with  God.  But  his  religious 
and  ethical  nature  involves  a  more  direct  and 
fundamental  relationship  to  God,  not  merely 
as  qualified  to  interpret  His  life  in  Nature,  but, 
as  a  child  of  God,  to  know  Him  more  in- 
timately, and  to  respond  to  His  personal  au- 
thority and  paternal  love.  That  God  is  a 
personal  being  we  know  from  His  ethical  char- 
acter, as  seen  in  the  moral  order  of  the  world, 
and  in  the  religious  and  ethical  nature  He  has 
given  to  man.  But,  as  intimated  in  the  close 
of  the  preceding  chapter,  there  is  above 
Nature  a  direct  relation  of  spirit  with  spirit, 
as  the  source  of  man's  deepest  and  purest  life. 

117 


ii8  The  Immortal  Life 

To  this  relationship,  the  religious  and  ethical 
nature  of  man  bears  witness,  for  he  has  ever 
been  seeking  after  God  for  more  perfect 
knowledge  and  direct  intercourse. 

We  are  now  to  consider  what  is  involved  in 
this  religious  and  ethical  relationship  to  God 
as  2L  persona/ being. 

That  man  has  a  religio2is  as  well  as  an  ethical 
nature,  is  now  almost  universally  conceded. 
If  Quatrefages  could  affirm,  a  half-century  ago, 
that  man  is  by  nature  a  religious  being,  cer- 
tainly the  more  thorough  explorations  since 
made,  in  every  corner  of  the  world,  confirm  his 
conclusion.  Professor  Tiele,  in  giving  a  broad 
definition  of  religion,  says :  "  By  religion,  I 
mean  those  manifestations  of  the  human  mind, 
in  words,  deeds,  customs,  and  institutions, 
which  testify  to  man's  belief  in  the  super- 
human and  serve  to  bring  him  into  relations 
with  it."  He  then  adds  :  "  Religion  is  cer- 
tainly rooted  in  man's  nature ;  that  is,  it 
springs  from  his  inmost  soul."  "  Though  con- 
scious of  the  superiority  of  our  religion,  let  us 
hail  this  religious  disposition  as  a  proof  of 
man's  higher  origin,  as  a  proof  that  the  finite 
being  partakes  of  the  Infinite  and  the  eternal." 
— Gifford  Lectures,  pp.  4,  9,  264. 

Professor  Caird  on  the  same  point  says  :  "  To 


The  Immortal  Life  119 

sum  up  the  whole  matter  in  one  word,  every 
rational  being,  as  such,  is  a  religious  being." — 
Evolution  of  Religion,  p.  68. 

Instead  of  accounting  for  the  origin  of  re- 
ligion, as  Mr.  Spencer  does,  in  dreams,  ghosts, 
and  the  like,  it  is  now  affirmed  to  be  the  out- 
come of  man's  rational  nature,  as  correlated  to 
the  world's  rational  order.  Whether  man  be- 
came rational,  and  therefore  religious,  by  the 
slow  process  of  evolution  or  by  direct  creative 
act,  we  need  not  determine.  In  either  case  it 
was  by  divine  agency,  since  the  cosmic  process 
is  as  truly  divine  as  the  creative  act.  Still 
there  are  those  who  would  put  religion  in  the 
background,  substituting  ethics  in  its  place,  or 
at  least  subordinating  the  former  to  the  latter. 
But  if  either  has  precedence  in  time,  it  is  not 
ethics  but  religion,  since  what  are  called 
nature-religions  appeared  before  those  that 
were  ethical.  Both  are  essential  as  united. 
Morality  may,  indeed,  be  separated  from  re- 
ligion, as  based  on  conscience,  but  such  morality 
lacks  two  essential  elements  :  vital,  persistent 
forces,  and  integrity,  or  complete  righteous- 
ness. Man's  sufficiency  to  rule  himself  rightly 
may  well  be  questioned.  A  merely  self-sus- 
tained will  is  unequal  to  the  task.  Religion, 
with   its  divine   sanctions,    is  the  surest   and 


I20  The  Immortal  Life 

strongest  support  of  morality,  reinforcing  the 
moral  endeavors  as  nothing  else  can.  Besides, 
morality  itself,  rightly  viewed,  has  a  religious 
basis.  "All  moral  precepts,"  says  Professor 
Wundt,  "  originally  possess  the  character  of 
religious  command.  Morality,  law,  and  religi- 
ous worship  are  in  the  first  instance  inseparably 
commingled." — Ethics,  p.  121.  In  very  terse 
but  expressive  language.  Canon  Aubrey  Moore 
says  :  "  Human  nature  craves  to  be  both 
religious  and  rational,  and  the  life  that  is  not 
both  is  neither." — Lux  Mtmdi,  p.  109. 

The  categorical  imperative  of  Kant  presup- 
poses divine  authority  as  its  basis.  Man  did 
not  ordain,  and  cannot  repeal,  the  law  of  con- 
science. If  the  cosmic  forces  enthroned  it, 
they  did  not  consult  his  wishes,  and  its  solemn 
sanctions  are  independent  of  his  will.  His 
sovereignty  is  a  delegated  sovereignty,  a  trust 
committed  to  his  keeping,  accompanied  with  a 
grave  responsibility  which  he  cannot  alienate. 
Much  as  reliofion  has  been  misunderstood  and 
perverted,  it  is  the  strongest  support  of  the 
ethical  life.  Such  life,  to  be  either  dominant 
or  complete  in  righteousness,  must  be  sus- 
tained and  more  completely  vitalized  by  the 
life-blood  of  filial  reverence  and  love  inspired 
by  the  holy  character  and   boundless  benefi- 


The  Immortal  Life  121 

cence  of  God.  Such  affections  move  exactly 
in  the  Hne  of  a  righteous  will.  They  are  the 
secret  of  its  strength.  Religion  rightly  under- 
stood furnishes  not  only  the  most  effective 
motives,  but  the  highest  ideal  for  the  true 
ethical  life ;  and  the  expectation  of  a  future 
life,  instead  of  marring  its  simplicity  by  selfish 
or  prudential  motives,  intensifies  the  longing 
for  the  purity  that  shall  fit  one  for  seeing  God 
in  the  heavenly  state. 

The  truth  is,  religion  and  morality  belong 
together.  They  are  mutually  supporting,  and 
cannot  be  separated  without  serious  detriment 
to  both  ;  for  a  religion  that  is  not  ethical  is  a 
superstition,  and  a  morality  without  religion 
lacks  both  vital  efficiency  and  integrity.  The 
weakness  of  humanity  in  presence  of  the 
world's  temptations  must  be  taken  account  of 
by  those  who  are  in  earnest  for  the  righteous 
life.  If  the  Stoics,  with  their  reverence  for 
virtue  as  the  chief  good,  and  their  assumed 
self-sufficiency  for  its  practice,  not  unfrequently 
confessed  defeat  and  despair  by  suicide ;  if 
every  man  of  high  ideals  is  conscious  of  morti- 
fying failures,  certainly  the  aid  of  religious 
motives  should  be  a  welcome  support.  Moral- 
ists in  ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia  appealed 
to  the  Supreme  Authority  to  give  sanction  and 


122  The  Immortal  Life 

force  to  moral  precepts.  The  following  words 
of  Professor  Tiele  give  instructive  warning  to 
schools  of  ethical  culture  that  would  decline 
the  aid  of  religion  altogether,  or  would  subor- 
dinate it  to  morality.  He  says  :  "  A  particu- 
lar civilization  that  disrep-ards  the  religious 
element,  and  is  content  with  the  progress 
made  in  other  departments,  bears  no  lasting 
fruit,  and  soon  stagnates  and  declines ;  or, 
briefly,  the  development  of  religion  is  the 
necessary  consummation  of  all  human  develop- 
ment, and  is  at  once  demanded  and  promoted 
by    it."  —  Gifford    Lectures,     1897,    pp.    102, 

233- 

Through  the  affinity  of  human  nature  for 
religion,  it  has  been  from  time  immemorial 
the  dominant  factor  in  the  world's  history. 
The  family,  the  tribe,  the  city,  and  the  state, 
have  had  their  sacred  altars  and  their  worship. 
Its  solemnities  have  been  invoked  at  the  mar- 
riage festival,  at  births,  and  at  funerals.  Kings 
have  been  invested  with  its  sacred  functions, 
when  assuming  their  regal  authority,  and  even 
in  the  republics  of  Greece  and  Rome,  the 
Archon  in  the  former  and  the  Patrician  in  the 
latter,  on  state  occasions  presided  over  its 
rites,  with  titles  of  royalty.  The  ethical  ele- 
ment, while  indispensable  in  all  true  religion, 


The  Immortal  Life  123 

cannot  be  its  substitute.  The  progress  and 
well-being  of  humanity  require  their  insepara- 
ble union.  In  fact  their  separation  involves 
not  only  the  neglect  of  a  most  important  class 
of  duties,  which  men  owe  to  God,  but  a  vir- 
tual mutilation  of  human  nature.  For  it  de- 
prives the  crowning  principle  in  the  human 
constitution  of  its  correlative  object,  which  is 
the  source  of  its  life  ;  and  such  is  the  inter- 
dependence of  functional  action  in  the  living 
organism  that,  if  one  member  suffer,  all  the 
members  suffer  with  it.  Who,  then,  can  esti- 
mate one's  loss,  both  in  fulness  and  quality  of 
life,  in  living  without  God  in  the  world?  In- 
deed, the  whole  cosmic  order  is  correlated  to 
man,  as  a  religious  being.  We  have  shown 
that  the  intellectual,  aesthetic,  and  moral 
order  is  a  medium  of  divine  manifestation  to 
the  mind  and  heart  of  man,  and  is  the  school 
for  his  mental,  moral,  and  religious  education. 
Thus  the  Most  High  comes  into  contact  and 
communication  with  man's  whole  being,  and 
is  his  true  environment  and  the  source  and  sub- 
stance of  his  proper  life.  For  his  true  life 
is  not  realized  in  observing  and  classifying 
phenomena,  or  in  studying  the  world  as  a  vast 
mechanism,  but  rather  in  recognizing,  in  all 
truth  and  beauty  and  moral  order,  the  sublime 


124  The  Immortal  Life 

manifestations  of  God,  that  in  beholding  His 
glory  he  may  become  like  Him. 

Linnaeus  might  have  been  an  excellent 
botanist,  sensitive  to  the  beauty  of  flowers, 
before  seeing  their  deeper  significance.  It 
was  when  he  saw  the  glory  of  the  Invisible  in 
them,  and  knelt  in  holy  worship,  his  soul  suf- 
fused with  grateful  and  reverent  emotion,  that 
he  realized  his  deeper  life.  It  is  one  thing  to 
recognize  the  moral  order,  "the  stream  of  ten- 
dency that  makes  for  righteousness "  and 
another  thing  to  appropriate  the  principle  of 
that  order  in  the  government  of  one's  daily  life. 

Accordingly,  the  inseparable  union  and  dom- 
inance of  these  two  elements  in  the  life  of 
man  is  indispensable  to  that  intimate  relation- 
ship to  the  Most  High  which  conditions  the 
true  knowledge  of  Him  and  participation  in  the 
fulness  of  His  life. 

True,  the  life  of  God  is  infinite,  and  cannot 
be  fully  manifested  to  finite  intelligence.  But 
"  the  soul  of  man,"  as  Professor  Drummond  has 
well  said,  "  is  a  vast  capacity  for  God,"  and 
men  can  know  Him  and  become  like  Him, 
through  His  progressive  and  ever -varying 
manifestations  of  His  perfections.  Hence, 
the  goal  of  man  is  no  fixed  point  of  attain- 
ment, but  a  continuous  approach  toward  the 


The  Immortal  Life  125 

infinity  he  cannot  reach.  Indeed,  the  religious 
and  ethical  life  of  our  race  has  been  pro- 
gressive hitherto,  though  with  many  sad  re- 
gressions. Whether  we  accept  the  evolution 
theory  or  not,  human  history  shows,  on  the 
whole,  great  advance  in  men's  conceptions  of 
God,  and  the  application  of  ethical  principles 
to  human  conduct.  Not  to  speak  of  other 
peoples,  this  is  emphatically  true  of  Israel,  the 
people  most  favored  with  divine  relevations. 
When  the  Hebrews  began  as  a  nation  at  Mt. 
Sinai,  hating  as  they  did  the  religion  of  their  op- 
pressors, they  seem  to  have  had  none  to  take 
its  place  until,  at  the  holy  Mount,  they  were 
led  by  Moses  to  choose  Yahveh,  the  deity  of 
the  Kenites  of  Midian,  to  be  their  God.  But 
at  that  time,  and  for  hundreds  of  years  after- 
ward, their  conceptions  of  the  true  God  and 
their  standard  of  morality  were  very  low.  He 
was  in  their  view  a  local  deity,  the  "  God  of 
the  sacred  mountain,"  and  the  "  God  of  bat- 
tles." Still,  in  the  judgment  of  Professor  Karl 
Budde  of  Strasburg,  their  religion  was  in  some 
measure  ethical,  "because  it  rested  on  2Lvoiun- 
tary  decision  which  established  an  ethical  rela- 
tion between  the  people  and  its  God  for  all 
time." — See  Religio7i  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  p. 
38. 


126  The  Immortal  Life 

But  their  ethical  standard  was  low  compared 
with  that  of  the  prophets  of  righteousness,  and 
that  of  the  prophets  was  far  below  that  of  the 
great  Founder  of  Christianity.  This  brings  us 
to  the  new  era  of  spiritual  progress.  The 
revelations  of  Jesus  Christ  concerning  God's 
being  and  character  are  the  most  exalted 
ever  given  to  mankind,  and  the  ethical  stand- 
ard taught  by  Him  and  illustrated  in  His 
own  life  furnishes  the  highest  ideal  of 
righteousness. 

Now,  it  is  a  fact  of  experience  that  near 
contact  with  pure  and  great  souls,  while  it 
humbles  the  beholder  and  convicts  of  sin  by 
the  evident  contrast,  at  the  same  time  touches 
the  noblest  springs  of  action  and  inspires 
reverence,  and  often  the  passion,  for  like  excel- 
lence. If  man  can  thus  inspire  the  love  of 
goodness  when  imperfectly  manifested,  what 
may  not  the  near  vision  of  God,  in  His 
sublime  and  holy  attractions,  do  for  receptive 
minds  ?  Many  *'  seekers  after  God "  have 
doubtless  found  Him,  and,  in  a  measure,  en- 
tered into  His  life  under  the  teaching  of 
Nature  and  their  own  conscience.  But  im- 
personal Nature  cannot  reveal  the  highest 
moral  perfections.  Even  Socrates  and  Plato, 
with   all  their  spiritual  insight,   earnestly  de- 


The  Immortal  Life  127 

sired  and  looked  for  further  divine  communi- 
cations. Indeed,  those  who  see  in  the  order 
of  the  world  the  evident  attempt  of  its  Author 
to  put  Himself  in  communication  with  men, 
may  well  look  for  supplementary  revelations 
of  His  character  and  His  relations  to  men, 
that  His  intercourse  with  them  may  be  inti- 
mate and  transforminof.  The  methods  of 
Nature  do  not,  as  we  have  seen,  exhaust  the 
resources  of  God  for  His  self-revelation  ;  and 
since  man  is  above  Nature,  as  a  spiritual  and 
moral  being,  we  cannot  assume  that  this  divine 
intercourse  must  be  restricted  to  the  natural 
order.  Certainly  God,  as  a  personal  being,  can 
be  best  represented  by  a  person  who  is  His 
image,  especially  by  one  who  is  pure  and  holy 
and  on  such  terms  of  intimacy  as  to  qualify 
him  to  know  His  purposes  of  good  towards 
men.  The  Most  High,  having  revealed  Him- 
self in  the  majestic  order  of  Nature  and  in  the 
varied  forms  of  life  below  man,  could  give  a 
more  direct  expression  of  His  highest  perfec- 
tions and  purposes  in  a  perfect  humanity. 
Jesus  Christ,  whatever  we  may  think  of  His 
origin,  is  without  doubt  the  most  worthy  rep- 
resentative of  the  divine  perfections,  and  by 
His  intimate  relation  with  God,  and  His  pro- 
found insight  into  spiritual  realities,  He  was 


128  The  Immortal  Life 

best  qualified  to  be  the  medium  of  the  needed 
revelations  which  supplement  those  of  Nature. 
He  had  not  like  other  men  debased  His  nature 
by  sin.  In  Him,  the  Sinless  One,  the  Divine 
Spirit  of  truth  and  love  and  grace  was  so  mani- 
fest that  His  proper  name  was  ''Immanuel, 
God  with  us."  Even  John  Stuart  Mill  saw  in 
Him  a  more  worthy  expression  of  the  divine 
perfections  than  in  the  course  of  Nature,  and 
the  highest  ideal  of  a  complete  humanity. 
The  wisdom  of  His  teaching,  His  profound 
insight  into  spiritual  realities.  His  sublime  idea 
of  a  universal  kingdom  of  God  brought  nigh 
to  men.  His  fidelity  to  their  highest  interest, 
His  fearless  utterance  of  truth,  and  His  gentle 
spirit,  His  readiness  to  make  any  sacrifice  to 
save  men  from  their  sins.  His  near  sympathy 
both  with  God  and  men  in  the  whole  spirit  of 
His  life,  illustrated  in  His  case  not  only  the 
close  union  of  the  divine  in  the  human,  but 
His  power  to  create  this  union  in  all  who 
would  receive  His  spirit.  The  proffer  of  this 
divine  union  and  communion,  on  the  part  of 
God,  through  such  a  messenger  as  Christ,  may 
well  inspire  faith  and  grateful  response  on  the 
part  of  man.  Indeed,  in  the  actual  experience 
of  great  multitudes,  it  is  found  that  the  cordial 
acceptance  of  that  proffer  brings  man  and  God 


The  Immortal  Life  129 

together  in  an  ennobhng  and  transforming 
fellowship.  It  is  that  union  of  the  divine  with 
the  human  which  is  the  besfinningf  of  the 
highest  possible  life,  and  it  must  lead  on  to 
the  perfection  of  humanity  as  its  proper  goal. 
This  is  no  speculative  theory.  The  Christ 
character  is  the  perfection  of  humanity,  and 
those  who  truly  receive  and  follow  Him  par- 
take of  that  divine  life  which  He  is  able  to 
impart.  He  added  new  spiritual  forces  supple- 
mentary to  those  of  Nature,  and  created  a  new 
era  which  has  proved  a  turning-point  in  human 
history.  The  leaven  He  put  into  our  race  is 
slowly  but  surely  spreading  far  and  wide,  and 
shows  its  divine  nature  and  power  not  only  in 
individual  characters,  but  in  a  purer  and  nobler 
civilization,  and  a  growing  ideal  of  social, 
moral,  and  religious  life. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  revelations  and  the 
spiritual  forces  supplied  by  Christ,  together 
with  those  of  Nature  and  the  human  conscience, 
bring  men  into  direct  and  intimate  relations 
with  God  and  create  a  life  at  once  human  and 
divine,  and  since  men  are  called  to  share  the 
life  which  is  divine,  they  are  called  to  share  a 
life  which  is  eternal. 


IF  DEATH  ENDS  MAN'S  EXISTENCE 

THE  GREAT  LAW  OF  HIS  LIFE  IS 

NULLIFIED  AND  THE  END  OF 

HIS  CREATION  IS  A 

FAILURE. 

"We  desire  immortality,"  said  Jean  Paul  Richter,  "not  as  the 
reward  of  virtue,  but  as  its  continuance." 

"  The  doctrine  of  immortality  is  of  infinite  value,  alike  as  afford- 
ing an  absolute  sanction  for  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  virtue,  and 
as  yielding  strength  to  human  nature  in  its  anxieties  and  solace  in  its 
bitter  bereavements." — WEhBO^'s  //ope  of  Immortality,  pp.  149,  222. 


131 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IF  DEATH  ENDS  MAN'S  EXISTENCE  THE 
GREAT  LAW  OF   HIS  LIFE  IS  NULL- 
IFIED  AND    THE    END    OF    HIS 
EXISTENCE  IS  A  FAILURE 

SINCE  creation  has  a  rational  ground  and 
order  it  has,  as  we  have  seen,  an  end  for 
which  it  exists.  This  end,  so  far  as  man  is  con- 
cerned, is  plain  ;  for  since  man  is  made  in  the 
imageof  God,  tolivein  His  fellowship,  he  should 
become  like  Him  in  character,  possessing  the 
dignity  and  excellence  which  belong  to  that  fel- 
lowship. Now  the  prime  characteristic  of  cre- 
ation is  its  unity.  This  unity  is  the  postulate 
of  all  science  ;  and  its  meaning  is  that  the 
world  is  consistent  with  itself,  working  together 
as  one  harmonious  system.  We  think  it  can 
be  shown  that  if  death  ends  all,  the  fundamen- 
tal law  of  the  divine  economy  is  practically 
nullified  and  the  purpose  of  man's  creation 
fails. 

We  have  shown  that  the  chief  end  of  crea- 
tion, as    indicated  by   its  rational  and  moral 

133 


134  The  Immortal  Life 

order  and  the  nobler  endowments  of  man,  is 
the  establishment  of  a  kingdom  of  righteous- 
ness. Accordingly,  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
system  and  of  human  life  is  ethical  as  ordained 
to  demand  and  promote  righteousness  in  the 
moral  creation. 

Let  us  suppose,  what  may  often  have  oc- 
curred, that  two  persons,  one  righteous,  loyal 
to  truth  and  to  God,  the  other  a  malignant 
and  cruel  murderer  of  the  other,  have  died 
together  and  dropped  at  once  into  non-exis- 
tence. Death  has  on  this  supposition  can- 
celled every  claim.  Both  have  the  same 
destiny,  eternal  extinction.  The  most  guilty 
murderer  might,  indeed,  have  cancelled  every 
claim  against  him  at  any  moment  by  taking 
his  own  life.  But  under  a  moral  government, 
are  there  not  two  parties,  one  the  subject  of 
the  law,  the  other  the  authority  that  ordained 
it?  Now,  if  the  relationship  between  the  two 
is  real  and  of  any  importance,  is  the  case 
closed  at  death  ?  Moral  law  is  as  indispen- 
sable in  the  moral  world  as  that  of  gravity  is 
in  the  material.  Both  are  essential  as  laws  of 
harmony  and  well-being.  In  the  material 
world  no  change  of  condition  puts  even  an 
atom  beyond  the  grasp  of  its  law.  This  law 
is  permanent  and  universal  or  chaos  would  re- 


The  Immortal  Life  135 

turn.  Can  we  suppose  a  moral  person  can  at 
any  moment  put  himself  beyond  all  jurisdic- 
tion by  taking  his  life  ?  His  high  endowments 
presuppose  corresponding  obligations.  A 
rational  personality,  the  highest  outcome  of 
creation,  belongs  to  the  spiritual  kingdom  for 
which  all  other  kingdoms  were  preparative, 
and  its  law  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  world. 
Can  this  law  be  maintained  and  administered 
in  the  interest  of  righteousness,  if  its  claims 
can  be  first  repudiated  and  then  blotted  out 
forever  at  the  will  of  the  guilty  subject  ?  A 
law  whose  claims  can  be  annulled  any  hour  by 
the  subject,  cannot  be  respected  as  the  su- 
preme law  of  a  righteous  administration.  Ac- 
cordingly, thoughtful  men,  irrespective  of  any 
special  revelation  and  on  purely  rational 
grounds,  have  had  the  firm  conviction  that 
the  present  life  is  probationary  and  that  man's 
account  with  his  Maker  is  not  closed  at  death. 
Dr.  Lotze  well  says  :  "  The  function  of  earthly 
life  in  this  coherent  infinity  of  existence  seems 
to  be  of  the  nature  of  2.  probation,  of  an  edu- 
cative probation,  not  aimless  and  empty  of 
significance  as  a  vanishing  present  unconnected 
with  any  future." — Murocosmos,  ii.,  p.  116. 

Dr.   Martineau  expresses   emphatically  the 
same  conviction  :  "  Liberty  to  go  right,  liberty 


136  The  Immortal  Life 

to  go  wrong;  can  it  be  a  mere  haphazard 
gift,  an  unmeaning  institution  of  contingency, 
as  if  from  some  curiosity  to  see  what  will  turn 
up  ?  And  when  the  experiment  is  over  are 
the  actors  dismissed,  the  curtain  dropped  and 
the  theatre  closed?  Such  an  issue  would  con- 
tradict the  very  essence  of  moral  freedom, 
which  surely  loses  all  significance  if  no  differ- 
ence is  to  be  made  between  those  who  use  it 
well  and  those  who  misuse  it.  When  the  two 
possible  ways  are  thrown  open  to  human 
choice  it  is  already  anticipated  that  not  all 
will  take  the  same,  and  provision  must  be 
made  for  treating  those  who  do  as  they  like, 
otherwise  than  those  who  do  as  they  ought. 
We  are  not  upon  our  trial  unless  there  is  a 
future  that  depends  upon  ourselves.  The 
alternatives  of  a  trust  have  their  sequel  in  the 
alternative  of  a  reckoning,  so  that  wherever 
conscience  is,  there  we  stand  in  the  foreground 
of  existence ;  and  a  moral  world  cannot  be 
final  unless  it  be  everlasting." — Shidy  of  Re- 
ligion, ii.,  pp.  360,  361. 

But  if  the  dropping  of  the  guilty  into  non- 
existence at  death,  virtually  nullifies  the 
administration  of  the  moral  law,  the  annihila- 
tion of  the  righteous  after  a  life  of  loyal  and 
trusting    obedience     seems,    if   possible,    still 


The  Immortal  Life  137 

more  at  variance  with  a  righteous  administra- 
tion. Conscience,  as  the  divine  voice  in  the 
soul,  utters  this  inspiration  :  "  Choose  the 
true  and  the  right,  rather  than  the  false  and 
the  wrong.  Hold  fast  to  Righteousness  above 
all  thinors." 

There  are  exigencies  when  loyalty  to  this 
command  involves  the  sacrifice  of  life.  If  such 
loyalty  to  the  supreme  authority  may  involve 
the  extinction  not  only  of  body,  but  of  spirit, 
it  is  also  the  extinction  of  the  very  loyalty  that 
is  demanded.  Such  a  sacrifice  is  very  strange 
as  made  in  the  interest  of  riorhteousness.  Think 
of  an  economy  that  demands  the  exercise  of 
loyalty  in  an  act  of  obedience,  which  at  once 
extinguishes  the  loyal  spirit  and  makes  the 
highest  possible  expression  of  fidelity  and  love 
to  God  the  sundering  of  every  relation  to  Him. 

It  may  be  said  that  such  loyalty  is  not  in 
vain  because  its  influence  in  promoting  like 
fidelity  in  others  may  be  wide  and  lasting.  To 
say  nothing  of  the  contingency  or  uncertainty 
of  such  influence,  it  is  certain  that  the  virtue 
sacrificed  is  of  intrinsic  and  absolute  worth.  A 
world  of  matter  is  but  dust  in  comparison  with 
it.  It  was  precious  to  him  who  achieved  it  as 
his  own  best  possession.  It  was  precious  to 
the  Most  Hi^h  who  had  longf  soug-ht  to  realize 


138  The  Immortal  Life 

it  in  His  creation.  Will  He  allow  the  one  who 
sacrificed  everything  for  it  to  be  deprived  of  it, 
perhaps  by  some  miscreant,  and  dropped  out 
of  beinor  as  of  no  further  use  ? 

But  the  relation  of  this  loyal  person  to  God 
is  not  merely  to  the  Lawgiver,  but  to  his 
Father.  The  Father  has  trained  His  child  to 
esteem  virtue  above  all  price,  and  loyalty  to 
Him  to  be  the  highest  virtue.  He  has  drawn 
His  child  to  Himself  till  in  mutual  afTection 
they  have  become  one  in  the  bonds  of  a  com- 
mon life.  The  child,  in  the  spirit  of  loyalty,  is 
prompted  to  a  course  of  action  that  sunders 
their  union  by  death,  and  drops  him  forever 
out  of  existence. 

Now  in  demanding  such  loyalty,  is  there  not 
an  Implied  pledge  of  protection  and  of  even 
closer  union  in  mutual  love  ?  Socrates,  when 
about  to  die  for  his  loyalty  to  truth  and  right- 
eousness, said  with  firm  conviction  :  "  He  can- 
not be  deserted  of  God,  who  has  earnestly 
striven  to  be  just.  No  harm  can  come  to  the 
good  man."  This  has  in  all  ages  been  the 
conviction  and  the  support  of  those  who  have 
accepted  torture  and  death  for  righteousness 
sake.  It  raised  them  above  the  fear  of  man, 
and  inspired  in  them  that  sublime  heroism 
which    is    the    crowning   glory    of    humanity. 


The  Immortal  Life  139 

Under  apparent  defeat  they  appealed  from  the 
injustice  of  man  to  the  tribunal  of  God  for  the 
ultimate  vindication  of  His  own  cause.  It  has 
been  said,  "  It  is  the  glory  of  England  that  her 
entire  army  and  navy  are  used  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  humblest  of  her  subjects."  Is  it 
not  the  especial  function  of  the  divine  moral 
government  to  foster  and  protect  the  interests 
of  righteousness  by  discouraging  the  trans- 
gressor, and  inspiring  loyalty  and  confidence  in 
the  hearts  of  the  faithful  ?  Is  this  function 
fulfilled  if  the  righteous  man  is  put  to  death 
by  wicked  men,  and  thrust  forever  beyond  the 
divine  jurisdiction  because  of  his  very  loyalty 
to  truth  and  to  God  ?  What  then  must  be  the 
natural  inference  concerning  the  supremacy  of 
law,  the  sacredness  of  moral  obligations,  and 
even  the  existence  of  a  righteous  or  paternal 
administration  ;  for  in  the  very  exigency  when 
the  faithful,  trusting  soul  needs  assured  sup- 
port, its  very  loyalty  puts  it  beyond  any  pos- 
sible recognition.  Assume  that,  under  the 
divine  economy,  the  most  saintly  man  and  the 
miscreant  that  tortured  him  to  death  are  alike 
dropped  out  of  all  jurisdiction  into  non-exist- 
ence and  you  unsettle  moral  convictions,  and 
undermine  all  confidence  in  a  divine  adminis- 
tration.     History  abundantly  testifies  that  the 


140  The  Immortal  Life 

human  will  rises  to  its  maximum  for  self-sacri- 
ficing and  manly  achievement  for  truth  and 
righteousness  when  in  assumed  alliance  with 
God.  The  Creator  seems  to  have  put  into 
the  reason  and  conscience  of  a  good  man,  as  in 
the  case  of  Socrates,  the  assurance  that  in 
loyalty  to  truth  he  has  the  divine  favor  and 
support.  If  such  alliance  fails  when  most 
needed  to  inspire  the  loyal  endeavor,  is  it  not  a 
delusion  to  depend  upon  it,  and  utter  folly  to 
try  to  enter  into  it?  The  Most  High  cannot 
inspire  confidence  in  His  justice  or  faithfulness 
if  He  prove  false  to  faithful  and  trusting  souls 
in  their  extremity.  He  cannot  be  less  true 
than  sinful  men  are  to  one  another.  But  if 
death  thus  ends  all  as  pertaining  to  the  indi- 
vidual, what  ground  have  we  to  expect  that  in 
the  conflict  between  truth  and  error,  right  and 
wrong,  in  the  moral  world,  righteousness  will 
be  finally  established  ?  The  assumption  that 
death  ends  all  virtually  nullifies  the  law  of  the 
moral  world,  on  the  part  of  God,  by  nullifying 
its  administration,  and,  on  the  part  of  man,  by 
taking  away  the  motives  that  inspire  loyalty  to 
Him.  We  have  seen  that  the  Most  High  has 
given  ample  proof  of  His  love  of  righteousness, 
and  of  His  purpose  to  give  it  supremacy,  in 
the  world.      He  has  wrought  the  principle  of 


The  Immortal  Life  141 

righteousness  into  its  very  structure,  and  has 
established  a  moral  order  as  seen  in  the  history 
of  the  race,  giving  to  transgressors  the  con- 
sciousness of  ill  desert  and  often  defeating  their 
counsels,  while  giving  fortitude  and  satisfac- 
tion to  the  virtuous  even  when  suffering  for 
righteousness'  sake.  The  whole  cosmic  pro- 
gression was  toward  man,  as  a  moral  being, 
and  so  toward  a  spiritual  kingdom  whose  glory 
should  be  moral  excellence  through  divine 
fellowship.  The  manifest  end  of  the  system 
and  the  unity  that  characterize  it  forbid  an 
assumption  which,  if  true,  would  destroy  that 
unity  and  defeat  the  end  of  creation. 

Some  persons,  indeed,  profess  satisfaction 
with  a  brief  term  of  life,  and  to  find  ample 
motives  to  virtue  and  to  altruistic  affection 
while  assuming  that  death  ends  all.  They 
have  no  concern  about  a  future  administration, 
thinking  that  life's  account  is  squared  day  by 
day.  But  if  man  has  no  future  life,  he  has  no 
permanent  worth  or  intent  and  he  perishes  like 
the  animal.  In  fact,  as  a  personal  being  he 
becomes  of  less  account  than  the  dust  he  treads 
upon,  for  that  is  indestructible,  while  person- 
ality the  highest  product  of  creative  power 
goes  out  of  being  and  with  it  all  that  has  value 
in  life  and  character. 


142  The  Immortal  Life 

Furthermore,  this  subjection  of  spirit  and 
character  to  the  conditions  and  laws  of  a  lower 
plane  is  contrary  to  the  general  economy 
which  subordinates  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
using  means  for  ends  and  all  below  for  that 
which  is  supreme. 

Still  the  extinction  of  spiritual  life,  it  is  said, 
should  not  abate  our  altruistic  love  for  man,  or 
our  regard  for  virtue,  however  brief  their  exis- 
tence, since  kind  ministrations  and  a  virtuous 
life  promote  valuable  interests,  not  only  while 
we  live,  but  after  we  are  gone.  Yes,  and  the 
whole  sentient  creation  has  claims  for  sympa- 
thetic and  kind  treatment.  Cowper  might  well 
give  wide  range  to  his  sensibility,  saying — "  I 
would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends  (tho' 
grand  with  polished  manners  and  fine  sense,  yet 
wanting  sensibility)  the  man  that  needlessly 
sets  foot  on  a  worm." 

But  it  should  be  remembered,  that  altruism 
must  diminish  both  in  force  and  quality  as  its 
object  is  low  and  insignificant  in  the  scale  of 
being.  You  cannot  feel  the  same  interest  in 
a  worm  that  you  do  in  a  horse,  nor  in  a  horse 
that  you  do  in  a  child  capable  of  large  develop- 
ment. For  a  like  reason,  you  cannot  feel  the 
same  regard  for  man  if  assured  that  he  turns 
to  dust  to-morrow,  that  you  can  knowing  that 


The  Immortal  Life  143 

he  is  the  image  of  God  and  destined  to  a  life 
of  unending  progress.  The  fact  that  he  has 
capacities  for  such  a  Hfe,  and  that  you  can 
minister  to  its  permanent  well-being,  gives  not 
only  zest  but  a  higher  quality  to  your  altruism. 
Now,  if  every  individual  is  to  perish  forever, 
and  this  earth,  instead  of  being  a  training 
school  for  a  broader  and  higher  life,  is  to  be 
only  the  cemetery  of  an  extinct  race  with  no 
residuum  but  dust  and  ashes,  our  estimate  of 
the  worth  of  the  race  is  greatly  lessened,  and 
our  motives  for  benevolent  and  heroic  sacrifice 
for  it  in  like  measure  lose  their  force. 

But  the  assumption  that  death  ends  all  is 
unreasonable.  It  is  contrary  to  all  our  ideas 
of  proportion  and  consistency,  that  through 
countless  ages  there  should  have  been  stages 
of  evolutionary  progress,  each  successive  stage 
revealing  additional  values,  or  higher  and 
higher  forms  of  life,  to  end  at  last  in  nothing  ! 
On  this  point  Professor  LeConte  says  :  "  With- 
out immortality  this  beautiful  cosmos  which  has 
been  developing  into  increasing  beauty  for  so 
many  millions  of  years,  when  it  has  run  its 
course  and  all  is  over,  would  be  precisely  as 
if  it  had  never  been,  an  idle  dream,  an  idle 
tale,  signifying  nothing.  I  repeat,  without 
immortality  the   cosmos  has  no   meaning." — 


144  The  Immortal  Life 

Evolution  in  Relation  to  Religiotts  Thought,  p. 

329- 

In  such  a  progressive  movement  we  natu- 
rally look  for  its  culmination  in  something  of 
absolute  and  permanent  worth.  The  dispro- 
portion between  a  scale  of  progress  so  vast 
and  an  outcome  that  is  worthless  cannot  be- 
long to  a  rationally  ordered  system.  There 
is  a  like  disproportion  between  man's  large 
capacities  and  his  boundless  environment, 
natural  and  spiritual  on  the  one  hand,  and  a 
short,  scantily  developed  life  on  the  other. 
His  outlook  on  all  sides  is  toward  infinity.  As 
rational  he  is  made  to  seek  and  love  truth,  but 
truth  is  infinite  and  everlasting.  As  a  moral 
being  his  goal  is  complete,  Godlike  righteous- 
ness, but  on  all  lines  of  duty  and  progress  how 
far  he  is  from  his  goal.  If  he  is  to  perish 
to-morrow  why  attempt  such  tasks  ?  Why, 
like  Pindar  and  Goethe,  should  he  crave  "great 
thoughts  that  he  may  live  upon  them "  ? 
What  messaofe  have  the  mountains  or  the 
firmament  for  him  ?  Why  seek  any  high 
ideal,  or  concern  himself  about  the  deep 
problems  of  creation  which  have  always  at- 
tracted the  interest  of  thinking  minds  ?  The 
Egyptian,  even  in  the  earlier  dynasties,  con- 
ceived   the   visible    universe    to    be   but   the 


The  Immortal  Life  145 

shadow  of  a  superior  world,  whose  light  is 
the  splendor  of  truth,  and  whose  laws  are  the 
laws  of  a  spiritual  and  eternal  life.  Why 
dream  of  such  great  realities,  or  anticipate  a 
high  spiritual  destiny,  if  all  that  belongs  to  us 
is  a  perishing  body  which  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  laws  of  a  spiritual  life  ?  Now,  if  the 
dissolution  of  the  body  is  the  termination  of 
human  existence,  it  is  plain  that  man  has  little 
use  for  his  higher  rational  powers,  since  he 
has  no  practical  concern  for  those  things  that 
properly  engage  them,  and  therefore  no  scope 
for  their  exercise.  The  consequence  is  that 
a  man  of  high  and  large  endowments  in  such 
conditions  must  experience  a  powerful  revul- 
sion, a  fatal  collapse  that  turns  the  unexpended 
energies  inward  into  morbid  self-torment  or 
cynical  complaining.  This  fact  has  a  striking 
illustration  in  the  case  of  David  Strauss,  as  in 
many  others  that  might  be  mentioned. 

Strauss  confessed  that  when  he  had  lost 
his  faith  in  God  and  immortality  he  lost  his 
interest  in  human  life  and  in  the  world  he  in- 
habited. The  meaning  of  both  had  dropped 
away  and  he  saw  nothing  to  live  for.  He  had 
parted  company  with  all  values.  Why  attempt 
to  solve  problems  of  the  world  and  of  human 
life  with  which  he  had  wrestled  in  vain,  finding 


146  The  Immortal  Life 

them  but  riddles,  with  no  clue  to  their  mean- 
ing ?  He  had  made  large  attainments  in 
knowledge  and  culture,  but  they  could  answer 
no  worthy  end.  Art,  music,  speculative  in- 
quiry, dramas,  even  friends  could  not  fill  the 
place  of  faith  in  God  and  immortality  which 
he  had  lost.  He  was  trying  to  live  in  a  vacuum. 
Of  course  a  healthy  ethical  life  was  impossible. 
His  education  and  refined  tastes  were  safe- 
guards against  low  vices,  but  there  was  little 
motive  to  reach  after  a  high  ideal  of  moral  ex- 
cellence, when  all  excellence  would  soon  come 
to  nothing.  The  universe  afforded  no  object 
that  could  inspire  those  affections  that  lift 
one  above  himself  and  ennoble  his  earthly  life. 
He  had  but  two  abiding  convictions, — that 
he  was  miserable  in  the  present,  and  that  in 
the  near  future  he  would  go  out  of  existence. 
Hope,  the  last  friend  to  forsake  the  living,  had 
departed. 

The  case  of  George  J.  Romanes  is  very  sim- 
ilar, and  is  well  known,  as  his  death  but  re- 
cently occurred.  He  early  parted  with  his 
religious  faith,  and  soon  after  leaving  the  uni- 
versity published  a  volume  thoroughly  atheis- 
tic under  the  pseudonym  "  Physicus."  Before 
he  recovered  his  faith  he  made  this  striking 
declaration  :  "  I   am   not  ashamed  to  confess 


The  Immortal  Life  147 

that  with  this  vital  negation  of  God  the  uni- 
verse to  me  had  lost  its  soul  of  loveliness. 
When  at  times  I  think,  as  think  I  must,  the 
appalling  contrast  between  the  hallowed  glory 
of  the  creed  that  once  was  mine  and  the  lonely 
mystery  of  existence  as  now  I  find  it,  it  is  im- 
possible to  avoid  the  sharpest  pangs  which  my 
nature  is  capable  of.  The  precept  '  know  thy- 
self '  has  become  transformed  into  the  terrific 
oracle  of  Qidipus,  '  Mayst  thou  never  know 
the  truth  of  what  thou  art.'" — Thoughts  on 
Religion,  pp.  28,  148,  149. 

Thus  the  sundering  of  all  relationship  to 
God  and  the  future  life  means  levelling  man 
to  the  dust  on  which  he  treads.  There  are 
few  who  can  face  eternal  nothingness  with 
composure.  Gifted  and  noble  minds  cannot 
endure  it.  The  shrinking  of  values  that  some- 
times occurs  in  the  marts  of  trade  under  the 
influence  of  widespread  disaster  is  nothing 
compared  with  that  which  follows  the  loss  of 
faith  in  God  and  the  future  life  ;  the  painful  re- 
vulsion which  great  and  thoughtful  souls  have 
felt  as  they  felt  compelled  to  face  the  eternal 
darkness  is  the  protest  of  a  rational  nature 
against  the  loss  of  its  birthright.  What  a  her- 
itage has  man,  as  the  image  of  God,  made  for 
His  fellowship,  and  with  so  vast  and  wonderful 


148  The  Immortal  Life 

a  universe  as  his  environment !  What  possi- 
bilities of  deep  and  even  progressive  life  are 
open  to  him  !  Truth,  beauty,  harmony,  the 
sublimities  on  which  his  eye  has  already  opened, 
the  society  of  kindred  spirits,  the  vision  of  the 
Divine  Glory  and  Majesty — Mrhat  is  there  not 
to  inspire  gratitude  for  such  a  heritage  !  But 
to  turn  one's  face  toward  eternal  extinction  that 
may  come  to-morrow — what  a  blight  it  casts 
on  what  remains  of  a  brief  and  hopeless  life. 
What  motive  to  high  achievement  in  knowl- 
edge or  virtue  or  any  form  of  excellence  ?  All 
high  ideals  are  smitten  and  disappear  as  illu- 
sions. What  becomes  of  the  dignity  and 
worth  of  man  and  of  his  high  place  in  creation  ? 
Instead  of  lifting  his  head  above  Nature  he  is 
dwarfed  into  insignificance  by  her  magnitudes  : 

"  Mountains  and  ocean  waves 
Around  me  lie, 
Tower  the  mountain  chains 

Forever  to  the  sky  : 
Fixed  is  the  ocean  immutably — 
Man  is  a  thing  of  naught, 
Born  but  to  die." 

"  A  life  of  nothing,  nothing  worth. 
From  that  first  nothing  ere  our  birth 
To  that  last  nothing  under  earth." 

Specimens  of  Oriental  pessimism. 


The  Immortal  Life  149 

Children  build  houses  of  sand  to  scatter 
them.  They  blow  bubbles  to  see  them  break 
in  the  sun.  It  is  the  sport  of  children.  Does 
the  Eternal  build  worlds  for  no  resultant 
good  ?  Does  He  sow  His  broad  harvest  fields 
to  gather  dust  ? 


THE   EXPECTATION   OF  A  FUTURE 

LIFE    ESSENTIAL   TO    NORMAL 

DEVELOPMENT     AND     TO 

WELL-BEING  IN  THE 

PRESENT 

"It  is  indispensable  both  for  man's  happiness  and  for  his  persistent 
moral  endeavor  that  a  faith  in  Immortality  shall  be  accessible  to  the 
human  mind  and  heart." 

Upton's  Hibbcrt  Lectures ,  1893,  p.  243. 

"  No  great  art  could  ever  live  if  it  ceased  to  regard  beauty  as  one 
with  truth  and  goodness.  No  poet  ever  touched  the  deepest  spring 
of  human  emotion  who  regarded  himself  as  the  idle  singer  of  an 
empty  tale." 

Professor  Caird,  Evolution  of  Religion^  vol.  i.,  p.  243. 


151 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EXPECTATION   OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE 
ESSENTIAL  TO  NORMAL  DEVELOP- 
MENT AND  TO  WELL-BEING  IN 
THE  PRESENT 

GOD,  Duty,  and  Immortality  are  closely 
linked  together  in  the  human  mind. 
Moral  relationship  to  God  carries  with  it  the 
idea  of  both  duty  and  immortality.  As  Dr. 
Dorner  pithily  expresses  it,  "  Destined  for 
religion,  man  is  destined  for  immortality." 
These  three  ideas  once  fastened  in  the  human 
mind  must  Qrive  direction  to  human  life  and 
become  the  mainspring  of  human  action. 
Professor  Huxley  has  well  said,  "No  man  and 
no  body  of  human  beings  ever  did,  or  ever  can, 
come  to  much  without  the  love  of  an  ethical 
ideal."  But  if  the  ethical  ideal  is  to  be  not 
an  empty  vision,  but  an  inspiring  and  effective 
force,  it  must  be  patterned  after  a  high  con- 
ception of  the  divine  character  and  be  associated 
with  religious  sanctions.     Dr.  Martineau  says 

153 


154  The  Immortal  Life 

of  moral  ideals :  "  Nothing  is  so  sickly,  so 
paralytic,  so  desolate,  as  moral  ideals  that  are 
nothing  else.  Their  whole  power  is  in  abey- 
ance till  they  present  themselves  in  a  living, 
personal  being  who  secures  the  righteousness 
of  the  Universe  and  the  sanctification  of  each 
heart.  The  whole  difference  on  which  I  have 
dwelt  between  morality  and  religion,  hangs 
upon  this  conviction  of  an  eternal  Holiness  in 
correspondence  with  the  individual  conscience.'' 
Study  of  Religion,  ii.,  p.  34. 

But  our  especial  object  in  this  chapter  is  to 
show  that  the  same  conviction  of  God,  Duty, 
and  Immortality  which  is  essential  to  a  sound 
morality  is  also  essential  to  all  the  great  in- 
terests of  humanity  in  the  present  life. 

An  eminent  author,  whose  name  cannot  here 
be  recalled,  after  a  wide  and  careful  survey  of 
human  history,  says:  "Where  the  belief  in 
immortality  has  for  a  time  disappeared  or 
fallen  away  from  the  foreground  of  human 
consciousness,  there  has  been  a  simultaneous 
decline  in  the  noblest  elements  of  civilization, 
in  Poetry,  Art,  Philosophy,  and  even  in  Science. 
Especially  have  the  affections  of  human  nature 
suffered,  their  delicacy  and  tenderness  blasted. 
If  they  have  only  mundane  ties,  snapped  at 
death,   even    their   temporary   significance    is 


The  Immortal  Life  155 

lessened.  Duty  becomes  an  affair  of  custom 
and  fashion.  Motives  for  self-control  and  self- 
discipline  are  changed.  That  we  do,  and 
shall,  always  live  under  an  Infinite  Intelligence 
and  Personality  acts  powerfully  on  the  per- 
sonal life,  uplifting  it  for  all  excellence.  This 
conviction  removed,  friendship  degenerates  to 
a  casual  acquaintance,  moral  life,  with  its  sub- 
lime struggles  toward  a  destined  goal,  shrinks 
into  commonplace,  within  the  limits  of  the 
secular.  What  use  to  toil  and  struggle  to 
reach  a  higher  life  if  we  are  soon  to  sleep  in 
darkness  and  cease  to  be  ?  '  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.' " 

That  such  results  naturally  follow  the  dis- 
belief in  immortality  might  be  inferred  on  phil- 
osphical  grounds,  since  the  great  diminution  of 
the  values  and  significance  of  human  life  which 
it  implies  must  lessen  the  motives  to  all  high 
achievement.  History  abundantly  shows  that 
what  has  inspired  the  highest  productions  of 
the  race  in  art,  literature,  and  philosophy,  and 
has  led  to  the  highest  development  of  human 
powers,  is  religion  with  its  correlative  doctrine 
of  immortality.  In  proof  of  this  we  refer 
briefly  to  well-known  facts  in  the  history  of 
national  and  individual  life. 

Egypt's  high  place  in  ancient  history  is  uni- 


156  The  Immortal  Life 

versally  acknowledged,  and  her  earliest  faith, 
which  was  monotheistic  and  closely  associated 
with  belief  in  a  future  life,  was  a  dominant 
factor  in  her  life  through  many  dynasties  and 
in  her  best  days.  In  fact,  the  polytheism  that 
subsequently  appeared  did  not  displace  in  the 
minds  of  her  wise  men  faith  in  one  supreme 
power.  Through  all  periods  of  her  history 
the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  was  prominent  in 
her  faith.  It  took  form  in  her  Book  of  the 
Dead,  and  was  expressed  in  her  national  cus- 
toms, in  funeral  rites,  and  not  less  in  those 
massive  temples  and  imperishable  monuments 
that  symbolize  an  eternal  life.  Her  moral  pre- 
cepts and  the  general  ordering  of  daily  life 
had  direct  reference  to  the  future,  for  which 
the  present  was  a  probation.  The  Supreme 
Ruler  was  a  being  of  infinite  majesty  dwelling 
in  the  splendors  of  the  "  Eternal  Day,"  and 
only  the  righteous  could  be  admitted  to  share 
its  transcendent  glory.  Their  sublime  concep- 
tions of  God  and  of  the  life  to  come  gave  char- 
acter to  her  civilization.  Her  temples  and 
monuments  seem  built  for  eternity.  Even  the 
scarabee  beetle  emerging  with  its  wings  sym- 
bolized the  future  life.  Astronomical  science, 
the  minute  observation  of  the  stars,  gave  posi- 
tion to  her  earthly  structures,   and  the  deep 


The  Immortal  Life  157 

problems  of  creation  and  of  her  religious  faith, 
which  engaged  her  profoundest  thinkers,  de- 
veloped a  "  wisdom  "  which  the  philosophers  of 
Greece  and  of  other  nationalities  came  to  learn 
as  if  it  contained  sacred  oracles  from  the  gods. 
Her  wisdom,  her  art,  and  her  highest  prosper- 
ity date  back  thousands  of  years  before  our  era, 
when  her  faith  was  most  vital. 

The  pantheistic  Aryans  of  ancient  India 
were  not  so  definite  in  their  religious  concep- 
tions nor  in  their  notions  of  the  future  life. 
But  while  vague  and  dream-like  in  their  pro- 
foundest moods,  they  sought  earnestly  to  pene- 
trate the  mysteries  of  being,  and  by  self- 
abnegation  to  qualify  themselves  for  ultimate 
union  with  the  mysterious  life-principle  of  the 
world.  With  these  spiritual  tendencies  was 
developed  a  subtlety  of  speculative  thought, 
tinged  with  poetic  feeling,  which  raised  them 
far  above  the  levels  of  a  sensual  life.  In  their 
sacred  hymns,  which  are  of  very  ancient  date, 
in  their  Vedic  literature,  and  in  their  philoso- 
phy, not  a  few  scholars  of  to-day  find,  as  they 
believe,  rare  treasures  of  thought.  Though 
long  hidden  from  the  world,  their  resurrection 
to  new  life  shows  a  marvellous  vitality.  In- 
deed, with  some  change  of  form  these  ancient 
speculative  dreams  from  an  ideal  world  seem 


158  The  Immortal  Life 

to  have  entered  largely  into  the  philosophic 
idealism  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Their  Nirvana,  whatever  it  might  mean,  was 
something  in  the  far  future  which  was  to  be 
hoped  for  and  at  last  attained  by  the  persistent 
denial  of  self  and  the  extinction  of  human  de- 
sires and  passions.  A  regimen  so  extreme  and 
unnatural  led,  of  course,  to  a  perilous  reaction, 
but,  with  all  its  imperfections,  the  influence  of 
their  faith  upon  literature,  philosophy,  and 
daily  life  was  immeasurably  superior  to  the 
materialism  which  sees  and  hopes  for  no  future 
but  extinction  at  the  death  of  the  body. 

The  teaching  of  the  Persian  Zoroaster, 
though  not  so  profound,  was  not  Pantheistic, 
and  in  other  respects  was  superior  to  the 
Indian  philosophy  spoken  of  above.  Though 
holdino-  to  two  antaoronistic  Powers  or  Princi- 
pies,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  as  explaining  the 
existence  of  good  and  evil,  he  taught  the  final 
triumph  of  Ormuzd  in  the  triumph  and  vindi- 
cation of  righteousness.  Holding  also  to 
human  responsibility  and  to  the  future  life 
with  its  just  awards,  his  faith  promoted  per- 
sonal virtue  and  national  prosperity.  His 
followers  became  a  mighty  power  among  the 
nations  of  the  East,  and  though  for  a  time 
subjected  to  Parthian  rule  they  regained  their 


The  Immortal  Life  159 

former  position  under  the  Magi  and  became  a 
strong  dynasty,  holding  their  own  even  against 
the  forces  of  the  Roman  Empire.  After  a 
brilliant  career,  in  which  their  faith  and  morals 
seem  to  have  approached  nearer  than  those  of 
any  other  people  to  Christianity,  they  were  at 
last  crushed  by  Mahomet.  Still  a  remnant  of 
this  people,  it  is  said,  is  now  found  in  India 
loyal  to  their  primitive  faith,  and  far  superior 
in  intelligence  and  in  morals  to  those  among 
whom  their  lot  is  cast.  Their  faith  in  the 
future  life  and  in  the  final  triumph  of  light  over 
darkness,  of  truth  and  justice  over  error  and 
wrong,  was  an  element  of  strength  in  indi- 
vidual and  national  character.  It  inspired 
courage  for  moral  endeavor  and  for  persistent 
opposition  to  injustice  and  oppression  in  time 
of  national  extremity. 

The  tendency  of  the  Grecian  mind  to  iden- 
tify the  morally  good  with  the  beautiful,  if 
not  to  put  the  latter  in  the  foreground, 
weakened  their  moral  sense  and  was  incom- 
patible with  the  highest  ethical  ideals.  But 
the  Greeks  were  by  no  means  without  religious 
and  ethical  teaching  of  a  high  order.  Hesiod 
was  not  the  only  one  who,  very  early  in  Grecian 
history,  gave  the  impress  of  his  strong  and 
healthful  religious  convictions  to  the  Grecian 


i6o  The  Immortal  Life 

mind.  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle,  together 
with  the  great  dramatists  yEschylus,  Sophocles, 
and  Euripides,  did  much  to  inculcate  religious 
truth.  In  fact,  the  Grecian  stage  as  repre- 
sented by  the  above-named  dramatists  was 
not,  as  to-day,  mainly  for  entertainment  and 
diversion  but  a  school  of  virtue  and  religious 
education.  In  front  of  the  stage  stood  the 
sacred  altar  on  consecrated  ground.  Their 
dramas  were  pervaded  by  the  religious  spirit, 
unfolding  the  divine  purpose  and  bringing 
sure  and  merited  retribution  for  the  sins  and 
follies  of  men.  This  was  expressed  in  the 
following  well-known  translation  : 

"  '  Tis  true,  the  working  of  the  gods  is  slow, 
But  it  is  sure  and  strong." 

Euripides  anticipated  Wordsworth  in  recog- 
nizing the  divine  immanence  in  Nature,  giving 
fit  expression  to  his  sublime  conception  : 

"The  Self-Existent,  who  in  heaven's  expanse 
Holds  in  His  large  embrace  all  things  that  are  ; 
Round  whom  the  light,  round  whom  the  dusky  shade, 
The  checkered  night,  and  the  unnumbered  host 
Of  stars,  move  gladly  in  unceasing  dance." 

yEschylus  especially  seems  to  have  been  a 
prophet  of  the  Most  High.  Lord  Bishop 
Wescott,   to  whom   we  are  indebted  for  the 


The  Immortal  Life  i6i 

above  translation  pronounces  these  great 
dramatists  "  not  far  behind  the  great  pro- 
phets of  Israel.  "  {Religious  Thoughts  in  the 
West.) 

With  the  subsequent  decay  of  the  ethical 
and  religious  spirit  came  degeneracy.  Poets, 
philosophers,  statesmen,  and  citizens  lost  rev- 
erence for  things  sacred,  and  society  dropped 
to  a  lower  level.  In  place  of  the  noble  aims 
and  lofty  themes  of  the  great  dramatists  came 
the  low  comedy,  with  its  cynical  and  frivolous 
conceits  and  its  ridicule  of  sacred  things,  till  at 
length  there  remained  little  power  even  to  ap- 
preciate the  glory  that  had  passed  away. 

The  Romans  in  the  early  stages  of  their  his- 
tory had  strong  religious  convictions,  and  the 
expectation,  though  vague,  of  a  future  life. 
Though  inferior  to  the  Grecians  in  philosophi- 
cal acumen  and  artistic  sensibility  they  had  a 
stronger  sense  of  justice,  which  took  expres- 
sion in  their  codes  of  law  and  in  their  judicial 
proceedings,  and  even  their  conquests,  by  ex- 
tending their  sway  over  warring  tribes,  gave 
order  and  unity  to  society  in  place  of  the  pre- 
ceding chaos.  But  the  display  of  wealth  and 
luxury,  side  by  side  with  a  slave  population 
and  squalid  poverty,  were  dangerous  and  dis- 
turbing elements.     Furthermore,  the  decay  of 


1 62  The  Immortal  Life 

religious  faith  and  the  growing  scepticism,  es- 
pecially among  the  educated  classes,  respect- 
ing the  future  life,  tended  to  loosen  the  bonds 
that  held  society  together.  This  scepticism 
was  made  especially  manifest  in  the  Roman 
Senate  when  that  body  was  determining  what 
punishment  should  be  inflicted  upon  Cataline 
and  his  fellow-conspirators.  Caesar,  the  official 
minister  of  religion,  but  an  epicurean  in  phil- 
osophy, advocated  imprisonment  and  torture, 
because  in  his  view  "  death  dissolves  all  the 
ills  of  life,  and  beyond  it  is  no  place  for  either 
pain  or  pleasure.  Wherefore,  keep  these  crimi- 
nals alive  to  suffer  fitting  punishment;  after 
death  there  is  no  more  punishment  of  sin, 
neither  is  there  any  reward  for  virtue."  Cato, 
the  rigid  Stoic,  next  gave  his  opinion,  and  was 
followed  by  Cicero,  but  neither  of  these  ex- 
pressed dissent  from  Csesar,  in  his  denial  of 
the  future  life,  though  Cicero  took  opposite 
ground  in  his  philosophical  discussions.  Thus 
the  Roman  Senate  on  this  grave  occasion,  in- 
volving the  safety  of  the  Republic,  in  deciding 
a  practical  matter,  showed  that  they  had  in 
great  measure  lost  their  faith  in  a  future  life. 
Sallust  gives  the  substance  of  the  speeches 
on  this  memorable  occasion,  and  Plutarch, 
though   more  brief   in   his   account   of  them, 


The  Immortal  Life  163 

does  not  question  the  essential  truth  of  Sallust's 
representations. 

We  cannot  wonder  at  the  scepticism  of 
educated  minds,  in  view  of  a  mythology  inter- 
woven with  so  much  poetic  fiction  and  ab- 
surdity, and  the  opinions  entertained  by  such 
men  would  of  course  soon  become  prevalent 
among  all  classes.  Augustus  on  taking  the 
supreme  power  saw  the  necessity  of  religious 
reform,  as  Domitian  did  a  century  later.  But 
such  reforms  for  prudential  reasons,  and  con- 
sisting mainly  in  stricter  ceremonials,  but  lack- 
ing sincere  and  vital  faith,  had  no  regenerative 
or  restoring  power.  When  the  primary  and 
fundamental  relationship  of  the  citizen  is  to 
the  state,  and  not  to  God,  a  strong  and  vital 
religious  faith  is  impossible.  It  was  nearly  four 
hundred  years  after  Caesar,  as  High  Pontiff  and 
official  interpreter  of  religion  to  the  people, 
had  affirmed  in  the  Roman  Senate  that  death 
puts  an  end  to  human  existence,  that  the 
Christian  faith  was  enthroned  in  the  Empire. 
It  gained  the  ascendency,  after  bloody  perse- 
cutions, mainly  through  the  pure  and  devout 
spirit  of  its  adherents,  and  those  strong  con- 
victions which  raised  them  above  the  fear  of 
man  in  unswerving  loyalty  to  Christ.  Constan- 
tine,  indeed,  took  up  arms  for  the  new  faith, 


164  The  Immortal  Life 

and  was  victor  on  the  battlefield.  But  the 
conquering  power  was  the  new  spirit  of  faith 
and  life  imparted  by  Christ,  which  gave  moral 
power  and  made  even  death  for  His  sake  but 
the  entrance  into  a  higher  life.  Such  a  spirit 
coming  in  contact  with  the  corruptions  of  a 
decaying  empire,  from  which  faith  had  de- 
parted, was  a  regenerative  power.  Revealing 
in  the  Christ  the  loving  and  merciful  Father, 
willing  and  ready  to  grant  free  pardon  and 
eternal  life  to  all  repentant  souls,  it  inspired 
fresh  hope  for  humanity.  There  was  power 
to  conquer  both  sin  and  death,  and  it  was  pre- 
cisely the  power  needed  by  lost  and  hopeless 
man.  Professor  Cook  says  of  Christianity : 
"  Regard  now  the  Christian  religion  merely  as 
an  external  fact,  as  an  existing  spiritual,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral  force  independent  of  all 
supernatural  sanction  and  superhuman  obliga- 
tions, and  all  must  admit  that  it  is  the  greatest 
power  in  the  world.  However  originated  or 
however  appointed  there  is  no  power  over 
men's  minds  and  hearts  to  be  compared  with 
it." — The  Credentials  of  Science  the  Wari'ant 
of  Faith,  p.  291. 

The  above  reference  to  historical  facts  is 
brief  and  very  imperfect,  but  it  may  suffice  to 
show  that  faith  in  God  with  the  expectation  of  a 


The  Immortal  Life  165 

future  life  has  not  only  been  the  most  important 
factor  in  the  elevation  and  progressive  devel- 
opment of  mankind,  but  that  the  loss  of  it 
has  resulted  in  loss  of  moral  and  intellectual 
power  and  of  inspiration  for  those  high 
achievements  which  show  the  real  greatness 
of  man. 

If,  as  Dr.  Lotze,  says,  "  History  is  the  edu- 
cation of  humanity,"  the  history  of  humanity  is 
the  history  of  its  religious  life.  In  giving 
greater  significance  to  the  present  life  it  has 
not  only  furnished  loftier  ideals,  but  worthier 
motives  for  their  attainment,  and  lent  an 
importance  to  human  actions  that  has  given 
to  human  life  its  divine  sanctities.  It  has 
raised  art  from  the  plane  of  sensuous  beauty 
or  servile  imitation  to  that  of  spiritual  and  cre- 
ative power.  Without  it  philosophy  would 
have  spent  its  force  on  idle  and  speculative 
themes,  with  no  clue  to  the  meaning  of  crea- 
tion or  of  human  life,  and  literature  instead  of 
unfolding  and  expressing  the  deeper  life  of 
man  would  have  little  to  deal  with  but  triviali- 
ties and  frivolous  conceits  or  the  ingenious 
collocation  of  words.  Take  from  ancient 
Egypt  her  sublime  conceptions  of  God  and 
the  future  life,  and  her  massive  temples  and 
monuments  would  never  have  risen  from  the 


1 66  The  Immortal  Life 

earth  and  she  would  have  attained  no  wisdom 
to  attract  from  all  lands  the  seekers  after 
truth. 

Take  from  ancient  India  her  sacred  hymns 
and  her  Vedic  literature  and  her  profound 
idealism,  all  inspired  by  religion,  and  little 
would  be  left  to  interest  modern  scholarship  or 
to  benefit  the  race. 

Take  even  from  ancient  Greece  the  works 
of  her  great  religious  thinkers,  from  Anaxa- 
goras  and  Pythagoras  to  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
Aristotle,  and  of  her  great  dramatists,  ^schy- 
lus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides,  and  of  her  artists 
that  built  her  temples  and  created  the  majestic 
statues  of  her  gods  and  you  take  away  the 
great  products  of  her  genius  and  the  chief 
glory  of  her  splendid  history. 

Furthermore,  take  from  the  world  the  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  faith,  as  recorded  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  and  the  results  of  what 
have  followed  its  reception,  as  seen  in  individ- 
ual piety,  in  the  higher  forms  of  civilization,  and 
in  the  progressive  development  of  humanity, 
where  its  influence  has  been  felt,  and  you  set 
the  world's  dial  back  to  the  time  when  the  old 
empires  had  spent  their  force,  and  humanity, 
disorganized  and  desolate,  was  groping  in 
darkness — 


The  Immortal  Life  167 

"  Crying  for  the  light, 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

"  Rise,  happy  morn  !  rise  holy  morn  ! 
Draw  forth  the  cheerful  day  for  night  : 
O  Father  !  touch  the  east  and  light 

The  light  that  shone  when  hope  was  born." 

Even  sceptics  bear  testimony  to  the  marvel- 
lous power  of  Christianity  to  give  meaning  and 
value  to  human  life  by  inspiring  larger  senti- 
ments and  hopes  that  give  strength  for  sacri- 
fice in  the  service  of  humanity. 

The  following  is  from  John  Stuart  Mill : 
"  The  beneficial  influence  of  such  a  hope  is  far 
from  trifling.  It  makes  life  and  human  nature 
a  far  greater  thing  to  the  feelings  and  gives 
greater  strength  as  well  as  greater  solemnity 
to  all  the  sentiments  that  are  awakened  in  us 
by  our  fellow-creatures  and  by  mankind  at 
large.  It  allays  the  sense  of  that  irony  of  na- 
ture which  is  so  painfully  felt  when  we  see  the 
exertions  and  sacrifices  of  a  life  culminating  in 
the  formation  of  a  wise  and  noble  mind  only 
to  disappear  from  the  world  when  the  time  has 
just  arrived  at  which  it  seems  about  to  begin 
reaping  the  benefit  of  it.  .  .  .  But  the 
benefit  consists  less  in  the  presence  of  any 
specific  hope  than  in  the  enlargement  of  the 
general  scale  of  the  feelings,  the  loftier  aspira- 


1 68  The  Immortal  Life 

tions  being  no  longer  kept  down  by  a  sense  of 
the  insignificance  of  human  life  by  the  disas- 
trous feeling  of  'not  worth  while.'" — Three 
Essays,  p.  249. 

We  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  words  from 
Professor  James  Orr  :  "Can  we  believe  that 
God  will  spend  a  lifetime  in  perfecting  a  char- 
acter, developing  and  purifying  it — as  great 
souls  always  are  developed — by  sharp  trial  and 
discipline,  till  the  very  best  has  been  evoked, 
only  in  the  end  to  dash  it  again  into  nothing- 
ness."— Kerr  Lectures,  p.  158. 


THE  RESOURCES  OF  MODERN  LIFE 
NO  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  PERSONAL 
RELATIONSHIP  TO  GOD  AND  THE 
FUTURE  LIFE 

"Through  all  time  it  has  been  true  that  a  nation's  strength  is 
found  in  the  sanctuaries,  the  temples  and  institutions  and  organiza- 
tions, by  whatever  name  called,  that  enshrine  the  truth,  protecting 
great  principles  of  righteousness  from  pollution  and  corruption. 
When  these  have  fallen  the  nation  has  fallen." — President  Raymond, 
Union  College,  Independent,  July  13,  iSgg. 

"  The  ultimate  root  of  Art  strikes  downward  till  it  feels  and  drinks 
the  life-giving  air  of  the  Infinite  and  Divine  ;  and,  once  severed  from 
this  it  shrivels  into  husk  and  semblance,  a  subjective  pleasure  of  our 
senses,  not  a  report  of  the  soul  of  things." — Martineau,  Studies  of 
Religion,  ii.,  p.  354. 


169 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  RESOURCES  OF  MODERN  LIFE  NO 
SUBSTITUTE  FOR  PERSONAL  RELA- 
TIONSHIP TO  GOD  AND  THE  FUTURE 
LIFE 

SOME  have  imagined  that  religion,  though 
suited  to  the   children   of  our  race,   is 

out  of  place  in  an  age  of  scientific  progress, 
when  intelligence  and  culture  have  improved 
the  conditions  of  life,  and  raised  society  to  a 
higher  plane.  It  is  a  well-known  theory  of 
Comte,  that  our  race  passes  through  three  suc- 
cessive phases  or  stages, — the  religious,  the 
metaphysical  and  the  scientific,  and  that  the 
latter,  which  is  the  final  goal,  is  to  supplant 
the  others. 

Accordingly,  the  only  religion  of  the  future 
will  be  the  religion  of  Humanity,  in  the  ab- 
stract, or  rather  the  worship  of  heroic  men  ; 
that  is,  a  religion  without  a  God.  Science, 
art,  literature,  and  improved  conditions  will  so 
occupy  and  enrich  human  life,  that  problems 

171 


172  The  Immortal  Life 

concerning  the  future,  the  unseen  and  the  in- 
finite, even  if  it  were  possible  to  solve  them, 
will  have  little  place  in  human  thought.  It  is 
certain  that  this  experiment  has  been  tried  by 
individuals,  and  to  some  extent  by  nations,  but 
in  neither  case  has  the  result  been  such  as  to 
encourage  its  repetition.  Professor  Romanes, 
to  whom  we  have  already  referred,  says  of  his 
own  experiment.  "  The  nature  of  man  with- 
out God  is  thoroughly  miserable.  ...  I 
have  known  from  experience  the  intellectual 
distractions  of  scientific  research,  philosophical 
speculation,  and  artistic  pleasure,  but  am  also 
well  aware  that  even  when  all  are  taken 
together,  and  well  sweetened  to  taste,  the 
whole  concoction  is  but  as  high  confectionery 
to  a  starving  man." — Congregationalist,  May 
6,  1894. 

When  Constantinople  was  taken  by  the 
Turks  in  1453,  Greek  scholars  were  driven 
from  that  city  and  dispersed  through  Europe. 
But  they  carried  with  them  the  love  of  Grecian 
art  and  literature,  and  choice  specimens  of 
each  were  scattered  here  and  there  through 
the  continent.  But  it  was  the  Italian  genius 
that  first  and  gladly  welcomed  Grecian  culture, 
and  inaugurated  the  splendid  Renaissance, 
which    has    since    borne    the    Italian    name. 


The  Immortal  Life  173 

Though  the  Latin  language  had  been  read 
and  spoken  by  scholars  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
there  had  been  little  knowledge  of  Greek,  as 
it  was  the  language  of  heresies  that  had  been 
condemned  by  the  Church.  It  is  said  there 
was  not  then  a  single  Greek  professor  in  the 
University  of  Paris.  The  ascetic  and  ex- 
clusive spirit  of  the  dark  ages,  with  various 
forms  of  repression,  had  begotten  a  sameness 
and  fixed  uniformity  of  temper  and  manners 
that  had  in  great  measure  stifled  the  spon- 
taneity of  individual  and  personal  life.  This 
order  of  things  was  at  once  changed  by  the 
Renaissance.  The  reaction  was  even  violent, 
and  the  determination  "to  live  out  one's  own 
nature  in  one's  own  way,"  free  from  all 
shackles — ecclesiastical,  religious,  and  moral — 
became  suddenly  a  passion.  The  reaction  was 
natural.  Art,  Freedom,  and  Nature,  were  the 
watchwords.  All  that  was  needed  was  litera- 
ture and  artistic  culture,  with  freedom  to  con- 
form to  Nature,  as  each  might  interpret  it  for 
himself.  This  was  to  be  the  new  religion. 
The  future  life,  and  all  things  sacred,  were  lost 
to  view,  eclipsed  by  the  splendors  of  the 
Renaissance.  But  the  passion  for  culture  to 
the  exclusion  of  religion  was  soon  found  to 
lead  to  all  sorts  of  license,  and  to  neglect  even 


174  The  Immortal  Life 

of  the  decencies  of  life.  Free  conformity  to 
one's  own  nature  often  proved  to  be  con- 
formity to  one's  lower  nature,  under  the  dis- 
guise of  sensuous  beauty,  without  conformity 
to  reason  and  ethical  law. 

Mr.  Symonds  in  his  admirable  work  on  the 
Italian  Renaissance,  to  which  we  are  much  in- 
debted, speaks  of  art  and  literature  as  "  sensi- 
tive to  the  state  of  morals  and  religion." 
When  the  Renaissance  had  culminated  in  the 
great  masters  and  the  national  spirit  had  blos- 
somed into  the  fulness  of  artistic  splendor  and 
was  revelling  in  beauty,  as  the  very  substance 
of  its  life,  it  was  at  the  same  time  sinking  into 
base  sensuality.  The  hierarchy  was  corrupt. 
The  inferior  dignitaries  of  the  Church  were 
full  of  intriorues  and  low  ambitions.  The 
masses,  while  trained  to  love  pictures,  statues, 
frescos,  enamelled  furniture,  and  bodily  adorn- 
ments, had  no  distaste  for  the  coarsest  vices, 
and  gave  loose  reign  to  brutal  passions  "  As 
illustrating  the  spirit  of  the  time  he  mentions 
Benvenuto  Cellini,  an  artist  of  much  repute, 
who  in  his  autobiography  boasts  of  his  own 
vices  and  murderous  assaults,  giving  at  the 
same  time  a  picture  of  society,  high  and  low, 
in  the  chief  Italian  cities.  This  revolting  pic- 
ture  Mr.   Symonds  regards,  on   the  whole,  as 


The  Immortal  Life  175 

"  a  veritable  picture  of  the  time  drawn  by  one 
whose  familiarity  with  the  different  phases  of 
Italian  life  qualified  him  for  such  a  task."  (See 
his  Italian  Renaissance,  i.,  p.  453.)  "  With  the 
exception  of  Michael  Angelo,"  he  continues 
(pp.  384,  453),  "there  was  no  great  master 
light  who  still  pursued  an  intellectual  ideal. 
The  Romans  and  Venetians  simply  sought  and 
painted  what  was  splendid  and  luxurious  in  the 
world  around  them.  The  capacity  for  perceiv- 
ing and  reproducing  what  was  nobly  beautiful 
was  lost,  and  vulgarity  and  coarseness  stamped 
themselves  upon  the  finest  work  of  men  like 
Giulio  and  Romano.  .  .  .  Michael  An- 
gelo  was  encompassed  with  deep  philosophic 
thoughts,  with  ideas  of  death,  judgment,  and 
the  stern  struggles  of  the  soul,  so  that  with 
him  beauty  was  serviceable  to  religion.  Cellini 
was  the  creature  of  the  moment,  the  glass  and 
mirror  of  corrupt  and  enslaved,  yet  resplendent, 
Italy.  Michael  Angelo  was  the  vehicle  of 
lofty  soul-thoughts.  Cellini  brought  the  fervor 
of  an  inexhaustibly  active  nature  to  the  service 
of  sensuality,  and  taught  his  art  to  be  the 
handmaid  of  a  soulless   paganism.     In  these 

two  men  therefore  we  study  the  aspects  of  the 

_      >» 
age. 

We  quote  thus  largely  from  this  learned  and 


176  The  Immortal  Life 

gifted  author  to  show  that  the  passion  for  art 
and  classic  culture,  however  it  may  adorn  life, 
cannot  save  it  from  debasement  and  corruption, 
and  that  the  great  works  of  art  are  not  the 
products  of  genius  alone,  but  of  genius  inspired 
by  those  religious  and  ethical  convictions 
which  lay  hold  of  essential  truth  and  which  are 
at  once  the  basis  of  character  and  the  soul  of 
art.  Michael  Angelo  was  the  "  Prophet  of 
Power"  because  of  his  clear  and  reverent 
vision  of  spiritual  realities  and  his  companion- 
ship with  the  Almighty.  He  wrought  his 
great  works  in  silence,  as  under  the  shadow  of 
the  solemn  mysteries  that  encompassed  him. 

It  is  significant  that  those  productions  which 
have  perpetual  life  and  power  over  the  human 
heart  are  those  which  are  inspired  by  the  high- 
est themes  and  appeal  to  what  is  deepest  in 
the  human  spirit.  The  Phidian  Jupiter,  the 
temples  of  the  ancient,  and  the  cathedrals  of 
modern  times,  the  epics  of  Homer,  Dante, 
and  Milton,  and  the  soul-stirring  harmonies  of 
the  great  masters  in  music  were  not  merely  the 
products  of  genius,  but  of  genius  under  the 
power  of  great  spiritual  realities.  Titian  and 
Raphael  in  their  Madonnas,  Leonardi,  "the 
Painter  of  Adoration,"  and  Millet  in  his  An- 
gelus,  all  put  into  their  canvas  the  spirit  of  a 


The  Immortal  Life  177 

devout  life,    which  has  made  their  works  im- 
mortal. 

"  There  is  no  beauty,"  says  Symonds,  "  with- 
out truth,  and  goodness  is  the  highest  sort  of 
truth."  Yes,  truth,  beauty,  and  goodness  are 
elements  of  the  divine  life,  and  he  whose  soul 
is  possessed  by  them  is  not  far  from  the  vision 
of  God. 

Modern  life  subsequent  to  the  Italian  Re- 
naissance might  furnish  abundant  illustrations 
of  the  consequences  of  separating  art,  literature, 
and  general  culture  from  the  religious  spirit, 
and  the  accompanying  thought  of  the  future 
life.  We  can  only  refer  to  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV.,  which  was  at  its  zenith  a.  d.  1678, 
about  two  hundred  years  after  the  beginning 
of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy.  In  the  meantime, 
France  had  made  progress,  and  early  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  there  were  in  his  kingdom 
many  men  of  wide  renown, —  philosophers, 
theologians,  poets,  and  artists, — a  constellation 
of  unusual  brilliancy.  Among  these  were  Des- 
cartes, Pascal,  Bourdaloue,  Bossuet,  Fenelon, 
Racine,  and  Boileau.  In  the  administration  of 
affairs  were  Richelieu  and  his  two  ablest  minis- 
ters, Colbert  and  Louvais.  These,  with  many 
others,  shed  a  brilliant  lustre  upon  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV.,  and    he,  though   inferior  in  his 


178  The  Immortal  Life 

education,  was  able  by  his  talents,  as  well  as  his 
position,  to  make  himself  the  central  figure 
among  these  illustrious  contemporaries.  He 
was  also  the  liberal  patron  of  art  and  litera- 
ture, making  lavish  expenditures  for  their 
promotion.  Having  absolute  power  and  ac- 
knowledged popularity,  perhaps  no  sovereign 
ever  had  a  better  opportunity  to  build  up  a 
strong  and  prosperous  kingdom  on  lasting 
foundations.  But  his  absolute  authority  and 
love  of  power  were  strangely  associated  with  a 
fatal  weakness,  a  susceptibility  to  be  dominated 
in  the  most  important  matters  by  unworthy 
counsellors,  by  men  and  women  to  whom  a 
man  of  sound  judgment  and  chaste  or  humane 
sentiment  could  not  have  listened.  His  most 
influential  adviser  in  a  very  important  crisis 
was  Madam  de  Maintenon,  and  the  most  dis- 
astrous and  cruel  measure  of  his  reign  was  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  accord- 
ance with  her  persuasive  counsel.  Perhaps 
history  does  not  record  any  measure  of  state 
more  horrible  and  inhuman.  In  the  butchery 
and  banishment  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
noble  men  and  women  it  depopulated  the  king- 
dom of  its  best  blood.  In  the  enforced  exile 
of  the  Huguenots  it  impoverished  France  of 
its  most  thriving  industries  ;  but  it  enriched 


The  Immortal  Life  179 

the  nations  that  gave  them  refuge.  It  was  also 
the  banishment  of  the  purest  morality  and  the 
sincerest  piety.  In  1678  Louis  XIV.  had  the 
most  brilliant  Court  and  the  most  formidable 
kingdom  in  Europe.  Nor  in  this  age,  when 
Pascal,  Bossuet,  and  Descartes  lived,  was  the 
religion  of  the  state  wanting  in  men  and  women 
of  religious  conviction  and  devoted  piety.  But 
in  general,  while  the  forms  of  religion  were 
observed,  its  spirit  lacked  depth  and  sincerity. 
The  tone  of  morals  was  low,  and  literature  re- 
flected the  prevailing  license  in  the  moral  life. 
Art  was  losing  sight  of  high  ideals  and  minis- 
tering to  sensuality.  The  men  of  genius  and 
renown  who  had  given  lustre  to  this  "  Augus- 
tan Age  "  of  France,  were  passing  away,  and 
the  soil  had  become  too  sterile  for  the  growth 
of  men  that  could  fill  their  place.  The  atmo- 
sphere was  tainted  and  the  shameless  im- 
moralities of  King  and  Court,  the  waging  of 
unnecessary  and  exhaustive  wars,  and  the  god- 
less persecution  of  the  most  worthy  and  right- 
eous subjects  rapidly  hastened  the  decadence 
of  both  kingdom  and  people.  The  inevitable 
consequence  was,  that  the  reign  which  had 
been  the  most  brilliant  and  illustrious  in 
Europe  ended  in  pitiable  weakness  and  decay. 
The  griefs  that  towards  the  close  of  his  life 


i8o  The  Immortal  Life 

weighed  upon  the  King  could  not  recall  his 
fatal  mistakes  ;  and  the  frank  confession  of  his 
follies  and  sins  could  only  emphasize  the  warn- 
ing he  gave  to  his  grandson  as  his  successor, 
not  to  follow  his  example.  And  what  is  still 
more  sad,  his  late  repentance  and  acceptance 
of  the  rites  of  religion  for  the  dying  could  not 
atone  for  the  neglect  of  its  precepts  in  the  day 
of  his  power,  nor  could  it  cut  off  the  sad  heri- 
tage of  evil  which  he  transmitted,  and  from 
which  France,  after  more  than  two  centuries, 
has  not  recovered. 

History  abundantly  confirms  the  truth  so 
admirably  expressed  by  Mr.  Symonds,  that 
"  literature  and  art  are  sensitive  to  a  low  state 
of  morals  and  religion,"  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  all  that  pertains  to  individual  and 
national  well-being.  For  it  is  certain  that,  as 
the  ethical  and  religious  spirit  goes  into  de- 
cline, all  serious  and  earnest  work  for  the 
present  life  is  over,  because  this  main  stimulus 
to  hia-h  achievement  has  failed.  In  fact,  the 
significance  of  life  and  the  worth  and  dignity 
of  man  depend  upon  his  conscious,  vital  rela- 
tionship to  God  and  the  life  to  come. 

Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke  in  his  volume  on 
Tennyson  well  says  :  "  Only  of  those  men 
who  can  bring  a  meaning  into  life,  touch  it  with 


The  Immortal  Life  i8i 

glory,  and  link  it  with  immortality,  will  the 
world  say  :     *  These  are  my  great  poets.'  " 

Tennyson's  high  place  in  literature  is  not 
owing  so  much  to  his  matchless  art  as  to  his 
profound  and  serious  dealing  with  man's  rela- 
tion to  God  and  the  future  life.  His  native 
bias  and  his  early  experiences  in  life  made 
these  high  themes  the  chosen  subjects  of  his 
contemplation.  He  had  wrestled  with  doubt. 
His  nearest  companion  and  friend,  Arthur 
Hallam,  a  youth  of  the  purest  character  and  of 
great  promise,  was  suddenly  taken  from  him  by 
death.  That  such  a  life  should  have  been  thus 
cut  short  was  one  of  those  mysterious  events 
that  awakened  serious  questionings  respecting 
Providence,  and  the  meaning  and  issues  of  the 
present  life.  Is  there  a  divine  oversight  and 
purpose  in  human  affairs  ?  Are  friendships  and 
affections  blotted  out  by  death,  or  with  deeper 
warmth  and  tenderness  do  they  persist  in  that 
immortal  life?  His  "In  Memoriam  "  reflects 
the  grief  of  a  bereaved  heart ;  and  his  strug- 
gles with  doubt  reveal  an  undertone  of  sadness, 
with  alternate  hopes  and  fears.  But  at  length 
he  emerges  into  light  and  peace,  with  a  faith 
that  was  quickened  and  guided  by  the  yearn- 
ing and  logic  of  the  heart.  To  this  experience 
he  gives  the  following  beautiful  expression  : 


1 82  The  Immortal  Life 

"  If  e'er  when  Faith  had  fallen  asleep 
I  heard  a  voice,  '  Believe  no  more,' 
And  heard  an  ever-breaking  shore 
That  tumbled  on  a  godless  deep, 

"  A  warmth  within  the  heart  would  melt 
The  freezing  Reason's  colder  part, 
And,  like  a  man  in  wrath,  the  heart 
Stood  up  and  answered  :  '  I  have  felt ! '  " 

Nor  can  we  deny  the  right  of  the  heart  to 
anticipate  the  conclusion  of  its  slower  partner, 
reason,  and  with  the  assurance  of  a  sharper 
vision,  to  affirm  the  true  solution  of  such  a 
problem.  We  are  persuaded,  too,  that  Tenny- 
son's whole  rational  nature,  as  an  accordant 
unity,  gave  utterance  to  these  emphatic  words  : 
"  Life  and  love  are  not  worth  living  and  lov- 
ing unless  they  are  continuous  ;  and  only  in 
continuance  is  the  problem  of  life's  troubles 
solved."  If  love  has  no  permanent  object  and 
life's  troubles  have  no  meaning  in  the  disci- 
pline and  growth  of  character,  what,  indeed, 
does  this  short  term  of  life  and  love  amount  to  ? 

Browning  with  like  assurance  gives  a  similar 
interpretation  of  the  true  meaning  of  life  when 
he  declares  : 

"  Life  is  probation,  and  this  earth  no  goal. 
But  starting-point  of  man, 
To  try  man's  foot  if  he  will  creep  or  climb. 
And  make  the  stumbling-block  a  stepping-stone." 


The  Immortal  Life  183 

Wordsworth  in  his  youthful  enthusiasm  had 
anticipated  great  things  for  humanity  in  the 
issues  of  the  French  Revolution.  Ending  as 
it  did  in  scenes  of  anarchy  and  blood,  instead 
of  fulfilled  hopes,  he  realized  only  a  staggering 
revulsion  and  utter  despair.  What  must  have 
been  the  effect  upon  his  future  course  if  this 
state  of  mind  had  been  permanent  ?  Allowing 
that  his  youthful  dreams  had  savored  of  ro- 
mance and  that  his  schemes  of  life  in  the  new 
western  world  were  altogether  fanciful  we  can 
at  least  admire  his  love  of  liberty  and  his  hope 
for  man  under  better  conditions.  There  is 
something  pathetic  in  the  sudden  collapse  of 
all  hope  of  humanity,  all  faith  in  Providence, 
and  all  that  interest  in  nature  which  in  his 
school  days  in  Hawkshead  had  awakened  the 
wonder  and  aspirations  of  a  poetic  soul.  Thus 
shut  up  in  himself,  and  feeling  that  the  universe 
was  bereft  of  all  value,  his  soul  would  have 
been  as  empty  as  he  imagined  the  universe  to 
be.  Had  not  a  discerning  sister,  seeing  him 
smitten  into  silent  and  cold  scepticism  by  a 
great  disappointment,  touched  the  fountain  of 
his  sympathies  and  affections  by  tender  and 
wise  ministrations  and  re-established  his  faith 
in  Providence  and  humanity,  English  literature 
and  the  world's  thought  to-day  would  have  been 


1 84  The  Immortal  Life 

much  the  poorer.  The  scepticism  which  for  a 
time  took  possession  of  him  would  have  de- 
spoiled the  universe  of  its  values,  and  no  wealth 
of  genius  could  have  originated  those  sublime 
conceptions  that  took  form  in  the  "  Preludes 
in  Tintern  Abbey,"  in  the  "Ode  on  Immortal- 
ity," and  in  certain  of  Wordsworth's  poems 
and  sonnets  which  the  world  will  not  soon  tire 
of  reading.  Whoever  by  scepticism  empties 
the  world  of  its  rich  spiritual  meaning  must 
empty  himself  of  inspiration  and  of  all  thought 
worthy  of  utterance.  It  was  his  insight  into  the 
divine  immanence  in  nature  and  in  man  that 
gave  to  the  one  its  glory  and  to  the  other  its 
immortal  worth.  In  his  view  it  gave  a  charm 
to  the  humblest  cottage  and  a  meaning  to  the 
most  common  aspects  of  nature.  Without  it  he 
would  have  seen  "the  primrose  by  the  river 
brim,"  but  it  might  have  been  said 

"  A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him 
A  primrose  and  it  was  nothing  more." 

By  his  spiritual  insight  into  nature,  Words- 
worth did  much  to  inspire  the  deeper  interest 
since  felt  in  natural  scenery.  He  contributed 
not  a  little  to  give  to  English  poetry  a  deeper 
spiritual  tone.  Even  the  sublimest  scenery  of 
the  Alps  had  awakened  no  special  interest  for 


The  Immortal  Life  185 

English  travellers.  Thomas  Gray  may  have 
been  an  exception,  but  even  Walpole,  after 
making  the  Pass  of  Mont  Cenis,  said  "  he 
hoped  never  again  to  see  such  uncouth  rocks 
and  unseemly  inhabitants."  How  different  the 
feelings  of  Wordsworth  even  as  he  looked  from 
mountain  summit  in  western  England — 

"  In  such  high  hour  of  visitation  from  the  living  God, 
Thought  was  not, — in  enjoyment  it  expired  ; 
Rapt  in  still  communion  that  transcends 
The  imperfect  offices  of  prayer  and  praise, 
That  mind  was  a  thank-offering  to  the  Power 
That  made  him  :  it  was  blessedness  and  peace." 

His  "  Ode  on  Immortality  "  has  been  said  to 
indicate  the  high-water  mark  of  English  litera- 
ture in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  very 
rhythm  and  movement  of  some  of  its  lines  one 
seems  to  hear  the  music  of  the  far-off  murmurs 
of  the  immortal  sea  : 

**  Tho'  inland  far  we  be, 
Our  souls  have  sight  of  that  immortal  sea 
Which  bro't  us  hither, 
Can  in  a  moment  travel  thither, 
And  see  the  children  sporting  on  the  shore 
And  hear  the  mighty  waters  rolling  evermore." 

Professor  Shairp  says  of  the  highest  poetry  : 
"  It  is  the  continual  reference  of  those  great 
poets,  tacit  or  expressed,  to  a  higher,  unseen 


1 86  The  Immortal  Life 

order  of  things,  which  gives  to  all  their 
thoughts  about  man,  depth,  tenderness,  and 
solemnity.  Two  thoughts,  admitted,  change 
the  whole  view  of  this  life, — the  belief  that  this 
world  is  but  the  vestibule  of  an  endless  state 
of  being,  and  that  Him  in  whom  man  lives 
shall  live  hereafter.  These  assumptions  of 
natural  religion  are  hardly  less  the  ground 
tones  which  underlie  all  the  strains  of  the 
world's  highest  poetry.  Some  would  have  us 
believe  that,  for  artistic  purposes  at  least,  hu- 
man life,  with  its  hopes  and  fears,  its  loves 
and  enthusiasms,  is  a  thing  complete  in  itself ; 
that  it  can  maintain  its  dignity,  even  if  con- 
fined within  visible  horizons,  concentrated  en- 
tirely on  this  earthly  existence.  Duty  to 
humanity,  piety  without  God,  is  to  supply  to 
sensitive  hearts  all  they  need  for  high  en- 
deavors, pure  morality,  ardent  devotedness  and 
consolation.  But  no  poet  has  ever  made  or 
can  make  much  of  life,  even  poetically,  who 
has  not  regarded  it  as  standing  on  the  thresh- 
old of  an  invisible  world,  as  supported  on 
divine  foundations  ...  If  the  ideal  light 
which  poetry  sheds  on  things  has  nothing  an- 
swering to  it  in  any  world,  men  who  are 
serious  minded  would  not  waste  time  on  it. 
But  imagination  is  an  organ  of  the  true.    This 


The  Immortal  Life  187 

faculty,  cut  off  from  the  truth  it  represents, 
pines  and  dies.  He  is  the  wise  poet  who,  ac- 
cepting the  limitations  of  time,  yet  feeling  that 
they  are  only  for  a  time,  bears  witness  to  the 
eternal  perfection,  and  by  the  beauty  of  his 
songs  wakens  others  to  the  sense  of  it." — 
Princeton  Review,  March,  i860. 

What  is  true  of  poetry  is  emphatically  true 
of  music,  which  appeals  most  directly  to  man's 
spiritual  nature.  The  ancients  appreciated 
melody  and  the  power  of  accordant  voices 
and  instruments.  Pastoral  songs  had  their 
sweet  attraction  and  martial  strains  kindled 
courage  in  the  warrior.  But  the  harmonies  of 
the  Christian  anthem  and  oratorio  were  be- 
yond their  reach.  It  is  from  Christianity  that 
the  great  masters  have  drawn  their  inspiration. 
Haydn  said  :  "  When  I  think  of  God,  the  notes 
fly  off  as  from  a  spindle."  In  a  concert  given 
by  him  in  Vienna,  when  that  sublime  passage 
in  his  "Creation,"  "And  there  was  light," 
was  rendered,  the  enthusiastic  applause  of  the 
audience  drew  from  him  the  secret  of  his 
highest  power.  Pointing  his  finger  heaven- 
ward, his  eyes  filling  with  tears,  he  ex- 
claimed, "  It  came  from  there.'' 

All  profound  experiences  seek  some  form  of 
expression,  and  the  deepest  and  purest   that 


1 88  The  Immortal  Life 

have  stirred  men's  souls,  those  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  may  be  said  to  have  created  a  lan- 
guage for  their  expression.  Christian  music 
in  its  highest  development  is  that  language. 
The  humble,  broken  spirit,  rising  from  the 
depths  of  penitential  sorrow  into  trust  and 
peace,  and  grateful  love,  voices  itself  in  the 
widest  range  of  musical  composition.  The 
richest  of  all  music  is  the  outcome  of  the 
Christian  revelations,  not  merely  of  the  Divine 
majesty,  but  of  redeeming  love  and  grace,  in 
delivering  from  sin  and  in  giving  the  life  eter- 
nal. Without  this  faith,  what  possible  human 
experiences  can  take  expression  in  uplifting 
song  ?  What  congregation  can  be  lifted  in 
transport  into  the  very  vestibule  of  the  heav- 
enly temple,  with  the  glory  from  within  re- 
flected from  their  faces,  when  without  hope 
and  without  God  they  are  face  to  face  with 
eternal  darkness  ?  Whoever  fancies  himself 
in  a  godless  world,  to  be  dropped  back  into 
senseless  dust  to-morrow,  can  seek  no  expres- 
sion in  musical  harmonies.  No  one  questions 
the  genuineness  and  depth  of  Horace  Bush- 
nell's  experiences  when,  fresh  from  the  obser- 
vation and  study  of  Niagara,  he  wrote  thus  to 
a  friend  :  "  One  ocean  plunging  in  solemn  re- 
pose of  continuity  into  another  ;  the  breadth, 


The  Immortal  Life  189 

the  height,  the  volume,  the  absence  of  all 
fluster  as  when  the  floods  lift  up  their  voices, 
still  bending  itself  downward  to  the  plunge,  as 
a  power  that  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever.  Verily  my  soul  reveled  within  me 
to-day,  as  never  since  I  was  a  conscious  being, 
in  contemplation  of  this  tremendous  type  of 
God's  eternity  and  majesty.  I  could  hardly 
stand,  such  was  the  sense  it  gave  me  of  the 
greatness  of  God."  In  another  letter  he  writes  : 
"  How  little  do  we  know  as  yet,  my  dearest 
earthly  friend,  of  what  is  contained  in  the  word 
God!  We  put  on  great  magnifiers  in  the 
form  of  adjectives,  and  they  are  true  ;  but  the 
measures  they  ascribe,  certified  by  the  judg- 
ment, are  not  realized,  or  only  dimly  realized 
by  our  experience.  I  see  this  proved  to  me 
now  and  then  by  the  capacity  I  have  to  think 
and  feel  greater  things  concerning  God.  It  is 
as  if  my  soul  were  shut  in  within  a  vast  orb 
made  up  of  concentric  shells  of  brass  or  iron. 
I  could  hear  even  when  I  was  a  child  the  faint 
ring  of  a  stroke  on  the  one  that  is  outermost 
and  largest  of  them  all  ;  but  I  began  to  break 
through  one  shell  after  another,  bursting  every 
time  into  a  kind  of  new  and  wondrous  and 
vastly  enlarged  heaven,  hearing  no  more  the 
dull  close  ring  of  the  nearest  casement,  but 


190  The  Immortal  Life 

the  ring,  as  it  were,  of  concave  firmaments,  and 
third  heavens  set  with  stars  ;  till  now  so  glori- 
ously has  my  experience  of  God  opened  His 
greatness  to  me,  I  seem  to  have  gotten  quite 
beyond  all  physical  images  and  measures,  even 
those  of  astronomy,  and  simply  to  think  God 
is  to  find  and  bring  into  my  feeling  more  even 
than  the  imagination  can  reach.  I  bless  God 
that  it  is  so.  I  am  cheered  by  it,  encouraged, 
sent  onward,  and  in  what  He  gives  me  begin 
to  have  some  very  faint  impression  of  the 
glory  yet  to  be  revealed." — Hunger's  Life  of 
Bushnell,  pp.  176-177. 

Dr.  Bushnell  had  what  Professor  Drum- 
mond  aptly  termed  "  A  vast  capacity  for  God." 
How  evident  that  by  contemplation  his  capa- 
cities were  enlarged  toward  the  vastness  of  the 
Universe  that  environed  him  till  wholly  spirit- 
ualized he  no  longer  needed  a  sense-medium, 
but  entered  into  immediate  communion,  spirit 
with  spirit,  suffused  beyond  measure  with  the 
divine  life.  That  one  in  the  presence  of  the 
sublimities  of  Nature  can,  like  Bushnell  at 
Niagara,  and  Coleridge  in  Chamouni,  lose 
sight  and  thought  for  the  time  being  of  the 
visible  in  the  sublimer  vision  of  God,  shows 
that  man  has  a  spiritual  nature  correlated  to 
the  Divine  and  that  the  natural  world,  having 


The  Immortal  Life  191 

fulfilled  its  highest  function  as  a  medium  of 
communication,  drops  out  of  mind,  leaving  the 
spirit  virtually  detached  from  all  that  is  mate- 
rial in  the  direct  vision  and  worship  of  God. 
Is  not  this  the  gfoal  and  consummation  of  the 
present  rational  life  and  the  foretaste  of  the 
life  hereafter  ? 

With  this  reception  of  the  divine  there  comes 
a  new  and  superior  power  to  all  human  faculties, 
giving  even  to  the  voice  a  divine  spell  and  sway 
over  the  souls  of  men.  Jenny  Lind  had  indeed 
by  nature  a  sweet  and  powerful  voice.  But 
Lord  Bishop  Holland,  after  frequent  interviews 
and  familiar  acquaintance  with  her,  expressed 
the  conviction  that  her  supreme  excellence  and 
power  came  from  her  sincere  endeavor  to  honor 
God  with  the  voice  he  had  given  her.  Had 
her  ambition  been  for  admiration  in  mere  self 
display,  her  voice  could  not  have  attained  that 
supreme  quality  which  was  divine  in  its  source, 
and  which  touched  what  was  deepest  and  best 
in  her  audiences.  There  is  higher  inspiration 
in  the  thought  of  God  than  in  the  thought  of 
self. 

Norman  MacLeod  was  at  one  time  charged 
with  heresy  and  was  threatened  with  deposition 
from  the  ministry  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
Scotland.     Being  permitted  to  state  his  own 


192  The  Immortal  Life 

case  before  that  body  he  manifested  in  his  ad- 
dress such  candor,  such  honesty  of  conviction 
and  such  supreme  regard  for  God  and  truth, 
that  he  disarmed  their  critical  and  narrow  spirit 
and  so  inspired  their  confidence  and  admiration 
that  instead  of  deposing  him  they  chose  him 
Moderator  of  the  next  General  Assembly.  In 
that  address  he  was  lifted  to  the  plane  where 
true  eloquence  begins  and  ends,  where  self 
disappears  and  only  truth  and  God  are 
seen. 

But  our  point  must  be  evident  without 
further  illustration.  In  the  absence  of  faith  in 
God  and  in  the  life  immortal  it  is  plain  that 
what  is  deepest  and  best  in  man,  whether  in 
the  intellectual,  the  aesthetic  or  the  moral  life, 
cannot  be  realized.  Not  only  is  the  soul  in 
large  measure  sterilized,  but  the  Universe  itself 
is  impoverished  and  made  empty.  The  high- 
est development  must  go  with  the  highest 
inspiration.  This  is  found  in  the  religion  that 
brings  Life  and  Immortality  to  light. 

Prof.  Clifford  after  losing  his  religious  faith 
said  :  "  We  have  seen  the  sun  shine  out  of  an 
empty  heaven,  to  light  up  a  soulless  earth  ;  we 
have  felt  with  utter  loneliness  that  the  Great 
Companion  is  dead."  Sully  on  Pessimism 
says  :  "  To  abandon  hope  of  a  future  life  is  a 


The  Immortal  Life  193 

vast  loss  not  to  be  made  good,  so  far  as  I  can 
see,  by  any  new  idea  of  service  to  humanity." 

The  following  sentiment  has  been  expressed 
by  both  Maurice  and  Tennyson  :  "  The  real 
hell  is  in  the  absence  of  God  from  the  human 
soul." 


COSMIC  FORCES  AS  RELATED  TO 
MAN  IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE 
END  OF  HIS  CREATION  AS  MADE 
FOR  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

"  The  entire  Universe,  the  totality  of  the  conditioned  and  depen- 
dent existence,  animate  and  inanimate,  material  and  spiritual,  is  one 
system,  integrated  by  one  thought,  unfolded  by  one  purpose,  and 
tending  through  all  stages  of  development  to  one  end,  the  perfection 
of  humanity,  the  conformity  of  rational  and  free  beings  to  the  image 
of  God." 

Professor  Cooke,  Michigan  University, 

Princeton  Review,  January,  1879. 


195 


CHAPTER  XI 

COSMIC  FORCES  AS  RELATED  TO  MAN 
IN  HARMONY  WITH  THE  END  OF  HIS 
CREATION  AS  MADE  FOR  RIGHTEOUS- 
NESS 

EVERY  rational  system,  as  rational,  has  an 
end  in  view  which  determines  its  general 
economy.  Accordingly,  Creation,  as  such  a 
system,  is  ordered  in  consistency  with  an  end, 
the  best  possible,  and  worthy  of  the  perfec- 
tions of  its  Author,  viz. :  a  kingdom  of  rational 
intelligence  ennobled  by  His  Fellowship  and 
partaking  of  His  life. 

We  have  seen,  thus  far,  that  the  general 
ordering  is  apparently  for  this  end,  since  man 
has  been  created  in  the  Image  of  God,  and 
is  organized  into  an  environment  which  is 
a  medium  of  divine  self-revelation  fitted  to  ex- 
alt men  into  fellowship  with  God  and  there- 
fore into  His  likeness.  We  have  seen  that  the 
religious  and  ethical  nature  of  man  involves  his 
direct  relationship  to  God,  a  relationship  which 
carries   with   it    the   obligation    of    obedience 

197 


198  The  Immortal  Life 

to  His  authority  and  also  the  high  privilege 
of  intimate  fellowship  with  His  perfect  life. 
But  notwithstanding  the  evident  purpose 
of  the  Creator  to  promote  righteousness 
as  the  supreme  end  of  His  system,  two  very 
grave  objections  have  been  urged  against  this 
view.  One  of  these  by  Professor  Huxley, 
asserts  that  the  cosmic  forces  operate  in  man 
as  the  enemy  of  righteousness,  the  other  by  Mr. 
J.  S.  Mill  is  a  virtual  impeachment  of  the  Au- 
thor of  creation  as  Himself  unjust  and  cruel, 
as  shown  in  such  ordering  of  the  course  of 
Nature  as  involves  a  vast  amount  of  suffering 
in  men  and  animals. 

Now  there  are  certain  aspects  of  Nature 
which  at  first  view  give  plausibility  to  those 
objections.  If  they  are  valid,  our  main  con- 
tention in  this  entire  discussion  cannot  be 
maintained,  for  if  the  cosmic  forces  operating 
in  the  lower  nature  of  man  make  righteous- 
ness impossible ;  or  if  the  Author  of  the 
course  of  Nature  in  its  relation  to  men  and 
animals  proves  Him  to  be  unjust  and  cruel,  a 
kingdom  of  righteousness  cannot  be  assumed 
as  the  end  of  His  creation.  Such  is  the  im- 
portant bearing  of  these  objections  upon  our 
main  position  that  we  need  fully  to  state  and 
fairly  to  meet  them.    In  his  Romanes  Lecture 


The  Immortal  Life  199 

Professor  Huxley  says  :  "The  persistent  opti- 
mism of  our  philosophers  hid  from  them  the 
actual  state  of  the  case.  It  prevented  them 
from  seeing  that  cosmic  nature  is  no  school  of 
virtue,  but  the  headquarters  of  the  enemy 
of  the  ethical  nature.  The  logic  of  fact  was 
necessary  to  convince  them  that  the  Cosmos 
works  through  the  lower  nature  of  man  not 
for  righteousness  but  against  it.  And  it 
finally  drove  them  to  confess  that  the  ideal 
of  '  wise  men '  was  incompatible  with  the  na- 
ture of  things  ;  that  even  a  possible  approxi- 
mation to  that  ideal  was  to  be  attained  not 
only  at  the  cost  of  the  renunciation  of  the 
world  and  the  mortification  of  the  flesh,  but  of 
all  humane  feeling."  ^ 

Now  the  "  ideal  "  of  which  Professor  Huxley 
here  speaks  is  plainly  that  of  a  mediaeval  ascetic 
now  repudiated  by  sensible  men.  It  ought  to 
be  impossible  to  man.  But  he  further  affirms 
that  the  "  Cosmos  working  in  the  lower  na- 
ture of  man  is  the  enemy  of  righteousness  and 
that  the  ethical  nature  may  count  upon  having 
to  reckon  with  a  tenacious  and  powerful  enemy, 
so  long  as  the  world  lasts." 

But  doctors  disagree.  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
predicts  that  in  the  course  of  evolution  the 

'  Evolution  of  Ethics,  pp.  75,  76, 


200  The  Immortal  Life 

cosmic  forces  within  and  without  will  be  in 
such  accord  that  the  ethical  life  will  require 
no  self-denial,  and  that  virtue  will  become  an 
automatic  movement  like  breathing  or  the 
beating  of  the  heart. 

Now  if  the  cosmic  forces  make  the  ethical 
ideal  which  requires  the  extinction  of  all 
human  feeling  an  impossible  task,  so  much  the 
better  for  the  cosmic  forces.  But  in  affirming 
that  they  are  so  hostile  to  the  ethical  life  as 
to  make  righteousness  impossible,  he  virtually 
affirms  incompatibility  and  contradiction  in 
the  divine  economy.  For,  through  human 
reason  and  conscience,  the  divine  command  is 
for  righteousness,  but  through  the  ordering 
of  the  cosmic  forces  it  is  made  impossible. 
These  forces,  working  through  the  appetites, 
and  lower  propensities  overmaster  the  nobler 
nature  and  defeat  all  endeavor  to  fulfil  right- 
eousness. There  can  be  no  such  contradiction 
in  a  rationally  ordered  system. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Professor  Huxley 
and  Mr.  Spencer,  with  essentially  the  same 
psychology  and  the  same  general  philosophy, 
should  assume  ethical  premises  in  direct  op- 
position. One  assumes  that  righteousness  is 
impossible  because  of  the  perpetual  hostility 
of  the  Cosmos ;  the  other,  that  the  Cosmos, 


The  Immortal  Life  201 

by  progressive  evolution,  will  bring  righteous- 
ness to  pass,  without  individual  effort  or  care, 
as  an  automatic  movement.  But  an  auto- 
matic virtue  under  natural  law  has  no  ethical 
value.  Both,  therefore,  from  opposite  pre- 
mises seem  effectually  to  banish  virtue  at 
length  from  this  planet.  For  in  the  one  case 
the  opposition  of  the  cosmic  forces  will  make 
it  impossible,  in  the  other  the  same  forces  will 
become  so  friendly  as  to  take  from  man  the 
fulfilment  of  ethical  functions,  thus  relieving 
him  from  all  moral  efforts  and  responsibility 
and  making  virtue  a  necessity  and  a  certainty 
under  natural  law. 

We  do  not  doubt  that  race  progress  and 
heredity  may  in  some  measure  tame  human 
passion  and  remove  some  outward  obstruc- 
tions to  virtue  now  existing  in  the  social  en- 
vironment. But  as  the  animal  nature'  will 
always  be  associated  with  the  rational,  its  com- 
peting claims  will  bring  temptations  to  evil, 
so  that  neither  ethical  law  nor  ethical  func- 
tions will  become  obsolete.  In  fact,  in  the 
early  stages  of  the  moral  life,  temptations  tend 
to  the  development  of  moral  character  as  giving 
occasion  for  those  judgments  and  choices 
which  determine  the  issue  of  opposing  claims. 
"Temptations,"    says    Schubert,    a    German 


202  The  Immortal  Life 

author,  "are  the  gymnasium  of  the  con- 
science." It  is  in  deahng  with  them  that  we 
learn  the  very  alphabet  of  morals,  for  only 
when  conflicting  claims,  lower  and  higher, 
bring  to  view  different  values  in  kind,  do  we 
have  the  data  for  perceiving  moral  distinctions 
and  recognizing  the  obligation  to  determine 
the  issue  according  to  ethical  law  by  judicial 
and  volitional  action.  They  furnish  the  op- 
portunity for  that  personal  and  moral  action 
by  which  ethical  character  is  originated  and 
strengthened  till,  by  discipline  and  habit,  it  be- 
comes firmly  established.  We  have  no  warrant, 
therefore,  to  assume  either  that  the  Cosmos  will 
always  prevent  the  achievement  of  righteous- 
ness, or  so  supersede  ethical  functions  as  to 
make  it  automatic.  In  other  words,  the  cos- 
mic forces  are  not  so  ordered  as  to  defeat  the 
end  of  man's  creation,  either  by  effective  op- 
position to  righteousness  or  by  making  ethical 
functions  and  law  obsolete,  thus  connecting 
the  future  story  of  human  life  with  a  mere 
chapter  in  natural  history.  Man,  as  the  bond- 
slave of  Nature,  has  no  ethical  character  and 
no  proper  history  of  his  own.  Great  moral 
issues  are  indispensable  to  both  ;  and  those 
that  call  for  heroic  self-sacrifice,  if  responded 
to,  give  occasion  for  the  loftiest  virtues  which 


The  Immortal  Life  203 

make  a  history  that  is  the  glory  of  humanity. 
Without  them  human  affairs  might  flow  on  with- 
out revolutionary  changes,  and  the  only  strug- 
gle for  existence  would  be  on  the  physical 
plane,  the  ethical  life  being  swallowed  up  in 
the  cosmic  order.  Holding,  as  Professor  Hux- 
ley did,  to  the  fatal  hostility  of  the  Cosmos,  we 
cannot  wonder  that  he  coveted  transformation 
into  a  machine  that  would  turn  out  truth  and 
righteousness  as  sure  products,  as  the  mill 
grinds  out  flour.  But  we  wonder  that  one  so 
self-poised  in  judgment,  so  pure  in  morals,  and 
so  successful  in  the  attainment  of  truth  in  his 
scientific  inquiries  should  wish  to  exchange  so 
splendid  a  mind  for  a  soulless  mechanism,  to 
be  operated  by  springs  or  turned  by  a  crank. 
It  would  seem  a  far  less  sacrifice  to  be  liable 
to  occasional  mistakes  of  judgment  and  choice 
than  to  be  dropped  in  the  scale  of  beings  be- 
low the  oyster  and  the  cabbage,  with  no  capa- 
city to  either  know  truth  or  to  practice  virtue. 
The  idea  of  machine-righteousness  and  knowl- 
edge is  so  absurd  that  we  credit  the  concep- 
tion to  that  jocose  pleasantry  in  which  he 
could  well  indulge  to  give  zest  to  his  "  Lay 
Sermons."  But  he  could  deal  seriously  with 
the  rational  and  ethical  life,  as  in  his  nota- 
ble   Romanes    Lecture,    in    which    he    pleads 


204  The  Immortal  Life 

eloquently  for  the  pursuit  of  an  ethical  ideal  as 
essential  to  real  manhood.  Still  an  ethical 
ideal  can  be  of  little  service  if  the  cosmic 
forces  operating  in  the  lower  nature  are  sure 
to  overmaster  the  ethical  endeavor,  thus  handi- 
capping and  defeating  every  one  at  the  start. 

But  there  is  a  different  interpretation  of  the 
operation  of  the  cosmic  forces  even  in  the 
lower  nature  of  man  which  is  possible  and  is 
not  so  depressing.  For  in  fact  these  forces 
instead  of  being  hostile  to  virtue,  making  it 
impossible,  serve  indirectly  in  normal  condi- 
tions, as  we  have  before  shown,  to  promote 
the  highest  order  of  moral  excellence.  We 
might  as  truly  say  that  Nature  is  the  enemy  of 
man,  because  she  imposes  the  necessity  of  care 
and  labor  in  contending  with  weeds  and  in 
subduing  the  soil  to  obtain  the  needed  har- 
vests. If  these  could  be  simply  gathered  as  a 
spontaneous  growth  without  toil  or  foresight 
it  would  not  favor  the  well-being  of  mankind. 
Those  living  in  tropical  climates,  not  compelled 
to  labor  for  a  livelihood,  are  by  no  means  the 
best  specimens  of  humanity.  It  is  a  wise 
economy  that  the  great  values  of  life  are  to  be 
obtained  and  appreciated  only  at  some  cost, 
and  that  the  idea  of  "  something  for  nothing" 
does  not  enter  into  the  order  of  the  world. 


The  Immortal  Life  205 

The  noblest  races  and  the  strongest  men  are 
those  that,  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  have 
contended  with  great  obstacles.  Why  should 
we  demand  that  a  strong,  pure  character,  the 
most  precious  of  all  things,  should  cost  us 
nothing  but  should  be  the  free  gift  of  Nature  ? 
Virtue  reaches  its  highest  excellence  and  finds 
best  appreciation  through  self-sacrifice.  Moral, 
as  well  as  intellectual  manhood,  grows  to  large 
proportions,  not  by  indolent  ease,  but  by  ener- 
getic action.  Doubtless  there  may  be  moral 
as  well  as  intellectual  imbeciles  ;  those  who 
by  heredity  or  some  malformation  are  over- 
weighted by  low  tendencies.  Those  are 
exceptional  cases  of  arrested  development 
through  disease  or  other  causes  unknown  to 
us.  But  in  general,  virtue  is  not  only  possible, 
but  it  is  man's  proper  vocation  to  achieve  it  as 
essential  to  all  rational  life.  Cosmic  forces 
do  not  work  against  it  but  for  it.  As  Matthew 
Arnold  well  says  :  "  There  is  a  Power,  the 
eternal,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness." Often  the  very  forces  in  the  lower 
nature,  that  seem  to  work  against  it,  con- 
tribute to  its  highest  excellence.  For  exam- 
ple, one  having  an  impulsive  nature  with 
downward  tendencies  may  seem  to  be  the 
victim  of  inherited   and  hostile    forces,  while 


2o6  The  Immortal  Life 

another  having  an  inoffensive,  amiable  tem- 
perament, requiring  little  effort  at  self-mastery, 
may  seem  to  be  far  more  highly  favored.  But 
the  former,  by  watchfulness  and  resolute  deter- 
mination, overcomes  his  tendencies  to  evil  and 
builds  up  a  character  richer,  nobler,  and  more 
firmly  established  in  righteousness  than  the 
latter.  The  apparently  hostile  forces  call 
into  action  the  higher  powers  of  manhood, 
and  by  conflict  with  them,  not  only  is  victory 
achieved  but  a  stronger  and  purer  character  is 
the  result.  Moral  power  and  a  worthiness  of 
manhood  is  gained  by  these  struggles  for  self- 
mastery  that  can  be  realized  in  no  other  way. 
Indeed,  Professor  Huxley's  own  experience  in 
his  pursuit  of  truth  and  in  the  virtues  of  his 
daily  life  is  a  refutation  of  his  position. 

But  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  urges  another  objection 
to  our  main  contention.  In  his  Three  Studies 
of  Religion  he  affirms  that  the  sufferings  and 
miseries  infiicted  by  the  course  of  Nature  upon 
innocent  animals  and  upon  men,  involve  cruelty 
and  injustice  on  the  part  of  the  Creator. 

If  his  assertion  is  true,  our  argument  in  this 
entire  discussion  is  a  failure,  for  the  Most 
High  cannot  consistently  require  of  men  to  be 
just  and  kind,  nor  can  He  be  said  to  rule  the 
world,  in  the  interest  of  righteousness,  if  He 


The  Immortal  Life  207 

Himself  is  cruel  and  unjust  in  its  ordering. 
Even  the  suspicion  that  He  is  unrighteous  must 
strike  dismay  into  the  minds  of  thoughtful 
men  and  weaken  the  ties  that  bind  them  in 
loyalty  to  Him  and  to  duty. 

Unquestionably  the  course  of  Nature  by 
some  necessity  brings  pain  and  suffering  upon 
men  and  to  animals.  We  cannot  pretend  to 
solve  all  the  deep  problems  in  the  divine 
economy  touching  this  subject.  Omniscience 
alone  can  see  them  clearly.  But  our  purpose 
is  to  state  some  considerations  that  in  good 
measure  meet  the  main  objections  urged,  and 
tend  to  reassure  our  confidence  in  the  divine 
wisdom  and  benevolence. 

First,  the  general  laws  of  the  cosmic  system 
do  not  indicate  cruelty  in  the  Creator  but 
beneficence  in  their  uniform  operation.  For 
example,  that  of  gravity  was  not  intended  to 
dash  men  and  animals  to  destruction  but  to 
enable  them  to  walk  safely  on  firm  foundations. 
It  gives,  in  fact,  stability  and  harmony  to  the 
Universe.  That  men  and  animals  sometimes 
come  under  its  destructive  operation  does  not 
disprove  its  beneficent  character,  since  the 
suffering  thus  occasioned  is  incidental,  while 
its  general  operation  is  for  the  well-being  of 
creation.     Certainly  its  abrogation  would  be 


2o8  The  Immortal  Life 

infinitely  more  destructive  than  its  continu- 
ance. Men  and  animals  are  made  more  alert 
and  are  stimulated  to  healthful  exertion  and 
development  by  the  very  necessity  of  careful 
adjustment  to  this,  as  to  other  laws.  We 
know  of  no  law  of  Nature  which  in  its  general 
operation  is  not  in  harmony  with  a  benevolent 
purpose. 

It  should  be  remembered  too  that  any  crea- 
tion in  time  and  space  must  have  its  limitations. 
Indeed,  it  may  be  impossible  for  Omnipotence, 
in  ordering  so  complex  a  system  for  general 
good,  to  secure  individuals  against  incidental 
evils  without  a  kind  of  intervention  that  would 
be  detrimental  to  the  general  interest. 

In  other  words,  incidental  evils  occurring 
under  necessary  and  beneficent  laws  cannot 
disprove  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  manifest 
in  the  ordaining  of  these  laws. 

Again,  the  endowment  of  sensibility  which 
conditions  all  suffering,  is  in  fact  the  condition 
of  all  enjoyment,  and  it  was  plainly  bestowed 
not  to  cause  suffering  but  enjoyment.  In  the 
nature  of  the  case  the  sensibility  to  pleasure  is 
a  liability  to  pain.  Accordingly,  the  sufferings 
which  are  experienced  cannot  disprove  wisdom 
and  beneficence  in  the  endowment  of  sensibility 
unless  it  can  be  shown  that  in  some  cases  it 


The  Immortal  Life  209 

was  intended  to  give  pain  rather  than  pleasure. 
In  other  words,  an  endowment  which  is  indis- 
pensable to  enjoyment  and  which  in  normal 
conditions  either  produces  it,  or  makes  pain  a 
wholesome  and  timely  warning  against  fatal 
exposure  or  unlawful  indulgence,  is  a  plain  in- 
dication of  benevolence  and  not  of  cruelty.  It 
shows  that  the  general  economy  provides  for 
enjoyment  rather  than  pain,  and  no  one  can 
suggest  any  other  general  ordering  with  proof 
that  it  would  be  superior  to  the  present. 

But  there  is  a  worse  evil  than  pain  which  has 
come  into  the  world  by  divine  permission.  We 
refer  to  the  violation  of  ethical  laws,  which 
means  sin.  While  its  commission  is  the  act  of 
the  creature  and  not  of  the  Creator  it  is  true 
that  the  sinning  race  of  man  came  into  exist- 
ence by  the  creative  act  of  God. 

One  objection  brought  by  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill 
against  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  the  Crea- 
tor is  that  he  gave  existence  to  "this  race  of 
sinful  and  miserable  creatures  when  other  pos- 
sibilities were  before  Him."  The  other  possi- 
bilities conceivable  are,  that  He  might  not  have 
given  them  existence  at  all,  or  He  might  have 
given  them  a  higher  nature  or  better  condi- 
tions. Professor  Huxley  also  assumes  that  God 
might  have  imparted  to  men  the  knowledge  of 


210  The  Immortal  Life 

Himself  directly,  and  thus  prevented  sin  and 
secured  holiness.  But  He  saw  fit,  for  reasons 
we  cannot  wisely  question,  to  create  different 
orders  of  beings,  and  to  treat  each  according 
to  its  nature.  Even  Omnipotence  cannot  rule 
the  planets  by  the  moral  law,  nor  men  as  moral 
beings,  as  He  does  the  planets,  by  force.  The 
former  He  holds  in  their  places  by  His  own 
efficient  energy,  but  men  He  commissions  to 
rule  themselves  by  the  law  of  truth  and  right 
implanted  within.  If  it  was  wise  to  create  both 
planets  and  men  it  is  wise  that  they  come  under 
the  law  of  their  proper  nature.  To  impart  to 
men  knowledge  and  righteousness  directly  by 
creative  act,  as  Professor  Huxley  suggests, 
would  be  in  harmony  with  the  professor's  idea 
of  mechanical  knowledge  and  virtue,  but  not 
with  a  moral  administration  nor  with  man's 
rational  and  ethical  life.  Men  indeed  know  cer- 
tain first  principles  by  intuition,  but  the  practical 
knowledge  of  truth,  justice  and  righteousness, 
as  we  have  before  shown,  is  not  a  direct  gift 
from  God,  but  the  achievement  of  the  personal 
agency  of  each  through  his  own  judgment  and 
choice,  according  to  the  laws  of  constructive 
thought  and  of  the  moral  life.  The  qualities 
that  belong  to  character  and  that  constitute  the 
highest   form    of   excellence    are   moral,    not 


The  Immortal  Life  211 

mechanical,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  they 
cannot  be  a  gift  from  without  but  an  achieve- 
ment within.  The  exercise  of  Omnipotence  in 
originating  them  in  man  would  be  as  much  out 
of  place  as  in  giving  moral  law  to  a  comet. 
Such  is  the  established  order  of  the  world,  and 
who  can  prove  it  unjust  or  unwise  ? 

But  Mr.  Mill  charges  the  sin  and  misery  of 
mankind  upon  the  Creator,  because,  as  he  says, 
"He  brought  into  being  such  a  sinful  and 
miserable  race." 

Now  a  sinner  is  one  who  becomes  such  by 
his  own  responsible  choice  and  act,  never  by 
the  act  of  another.  In  the  nature  of  the  case, 
beings  made  capable  of  choosing  the  right 
must  be  capable  of  choosing  the  wrong.  In 
either  case  the  act  is  personal  and  the  respon- 
sibility attaches  to  the  agent.  Whether  the 
original  endowments  and  conditions  of  the 
race  for  the  beginning  of  the  moral  life  are  the 
best  possible  who  but  the  Omniscient  One  is 
qualified  to  judge.  Professor  Huxley  and  Mr. 
Mill  thought  it  unwise  to  incorporate  the  lower 
with  the  higher  nature  of  man,  thereby  making 
certain  and  necessary  that  competition  and  con- 
flict between  them  which  brings  the  liabilities 
and  the  perils  of  the  sinful  choice.  But 
through  this  union  of  the  two  natures  man  is 


2  12  The  Immortal  Life 

put  into  organic  and  sympathetic  relations 
with  the  entire  Universe  as  his  environment 
and  made  capable  of  the  widest  range  of  knowl- 
edge. The  same  union,  as  we  have  seen, 
conditions  his  practical  knowledge  of  moral 
distinctions,  and  furnishes  the  occasion  for 
strictly  personal  action  in  the  exercise  of  those 
moral  functions  in  judgment,  and  determining 
choices  which  originate  character  and  constitute 
men  moral  agents.  If  this  arrangement  in- 
volves the  liability  to  sin  and  misery  it  also 
carries  the  possibilities  of  the  highest  excellence 
and  blessedness. 

Furthermore,  those  who,  like  Professor  Hux- 
ley, claim  that  man  is  developed  from  the  ani- 
mal nature,  cannot  condemn  this  union  without 
condemning  the  whole  order  of  creation  as 
evolutionary  and  progressive.  For  the  cur- 
rent theory  of  evolution  assumes  the  connection 
of  the  present  and  future  with  all  previous 
stages  in  a  unity  which  is  organic  and  all-com- 
prehensive. Besides,  does  not  one  who  con- 
demns his  affinity  with  the  lower  nature 
as  debasing,  not  only  pronounce  against  the 
general  order  but  show  ingratitude  which  is 
unfilial  toward  an  ancestry  to  which  so  much  is 
due  ?  A  deeper  knowledge  of  the  broad  econ- 
omy which  embraces  the  Universe  and  makes 


The  Immortal  Life  213 

it  one  consistent  system,  would  doubtless  lead 
to  a  retraction  of  such  conclusion  against  the 
wisdom  of  the  Almighty  as  hasty  and  un- 
warranted. 

The  world  was  not  created  mature  and  per- 
fect at  the  start,  as  Professor  Huxley  thought 
the  wiser  way.  It  is  a  progressive  creation 
from  darkness  to  light,  from  chaos  to  cosmos. 
All  agree  that  the  progression  has  been  through 
a  succession  of  kingdoms  ;  each  in  the  ad- 
vance superior  to  the  preceding  in  both  rank 
and  value,  until  at  last  the  kingdom  of  rational 
and  spiritual  life  to  which  man  belongs  has 
been  reached  as  the  culmination  and  crown  of 
all. 

We  have  shown  that  man  was  made  in  the 
image  of  God  for  participation  and  fellowship 
with  His  divine  and  perfect  life,  and  that  the 
very  conflict  between  his  lower  and  higher  na- 
ture in  normal  conditions  are  fitted  to  pro- 
mote the  highest  order  of  excellence  which 
is  truly  divine.  The  divine  economy,  therefore, 
instead  of  working  against  righteousness,  is 
plainly  ordered  for  its  sake,  as  of  supreme  ac- 
count and  the  final  end  of  all  arrangements. 
The  evidence  for  this,  the  broader  view,  is  too 
strong  to  be  set  aside  by  critical  conjectures 
based  on  surface  appearances  and  on  a  very 


214  The  Immortal  Life 

imperfect  knowledge,  even  of  appearances,  and 
especially  of  the  place  and  bearing  of  the 
whole  as  a  broad  consistent  system.  Men  are 
to  progress  in  moral  strength  and  excellence 
as  in  physical  and  intellectual  development  by 
contending  with  obstacles.  Strong  endeavor 
to  subordinate  lower  to  higher  principles  of 
action  is  as  necessary  to  the  development  of 
the  moral  life  as  physical  and  intellectual  exer- 
tion is  to  a  robust  and  healthy  body  and  a 
disciplined  mind.  This  method  of  growth  and 
attainment  is  in  harmony  with  all  the  laws  of 
life.  Unity,  the  converging  of  all  forces  and 
arrangements  to  one  supreme  end,  is  the  prime 
characteristic  of  God's  Universe.  In  other 
words,  He  constituted  it  a  rational  system, 
and  therefore  ethical,  as  its  supreme  law  and 
outcome.  Hence  there  can  be  no  warrant  for 
assuming  that  forces  in  the  lower  nature  of 
man,  or  elsewhere,  are  so  ordered  as  to  defeat 
the  end  for  which  creation  exists.  On  the 
contrary  when  men  are  faithful  to  their  trust 
these  very  forces  are  found  to  promote  the 
highest  order  of  moral  excellence.  Of  course 
in  a  system  so  vast  and  complex  there  are 
appearances  which  seem  to  show  a  movement 
contrary  to  the  general  course  of  things,  as 
a  broad,   deep  river  has  its  eddies  that  run 


The  Immortal  Life  215 

against  the  current,  when,  all  together,  eddies 
and  current  are  moving  on  toward  the  same 
destination.  The  counsels  of  God  are  broader 
than  our  narrow  vision,  and  are  not  to  be  pro- 
nounced contradictory  or  unwise  by  any  one 
who  does  not  take  in  the  whole  sweep  and 
compass  of  the  divine  economy.  When  such 
an  one  appears  he  will  not  judge  the  Almighty 
by  mere  surface  appearances,  but  by  the  pro- 
gressive and  combined  movement  of  the  whole 
scheme  toward  one  and  the  same  end.  Who 
is  now  warranted  to  say  that  both  the  end  and 
the  movement  of  the  whole  is  not  in  harmony 
with  the  divine  perfection  ? 

But  it  is  true  that  the  course  of  Nature  as 
ordered  by  Providence  involves  pain  and  suf- 
fering on  the  part  of  both  men  and  animals. 
This  subject  will  be  considered  in  the  next 
chapter. 


SUFFERING  IN  MEN  AND  ANIMALS 

AS  RELATED  TO  DIVINE 

BENEFICENCE 

"  'T  is  sorrow  builds  the  shining  ladder  up 
Whose  golden  rounds  are  our  calamities, 
Whereon  our  firm  feet  planting  nearer  God 
The  Spirit  climbs  and  hath  its  eyes  unsealed." 

Lowell. 

"  It  is  the  lot  of  all  superior  natures  to  suffer  as  a  part  of  their 
training  and  as  the  price  of  their  gifts  ;  but  this  suffering  has  often 
no  thorn  of  outward  loss  thrust  into  its  sensitive  heart.  The  anguish 
of  the  Cross  has  always  been  the  prelude  to  the  psalm  of  deliverance 
and  the  world  has  made  no  new  conquest  of  truth  and  life  except 
through  those  who  have  trodden  the  via  dolorosa." 

Hamilton  W.  Mabie, 

My  Study  Fire,  p.  36. 


217 


CHAPTER  XII 

SUFFERING   IN    MEN   AND   ANIMALS    AS 
RELATED  TO  DIVINE  BENEFICENCE 

THE  problem  of  suffering  has  always  been 
one  of  deep  interest  to  thoughtful  minds. 
The  wide  prevalence  of  so  many  forms  of  pain 
and  suffering,  together  with  the  frequent  occur- 
rence of  great  calamities  through  the  opera- 
tion of  natural  forces,  has  given  a  tragic 
element  to  human  history,  awakening  in  some 
persons  bitter  complaints,  in  others  painful 
doubts  and  misgivings,  and  in  reflecting  minds 
the  desire  to  solve  the  mysteries  which  such 
an  economy  presents.  From  the  times  of  Job 
and  the  Grecian  dramatists  down  to  Shake- 
speare, Tennyson,  and  Browning  this  tragic 
element  has  given  its  deep  coloring  to  dra- 
matic literature.  But  the  mystery  of  the  divine 
ordering  is  as  great  to-day  as  ever ;  and  who 
will  attempt  its  complete  solution  when  the 
profoundest  minds  in  all  the  ages  have  been 
unequal  to  the  task  ?     After  all,  the  mystery 

219 


2  20  The  Immortal  Life 

pertains  not  so  much  to  the  general  purpose 
of  the  divine  administration  as  to  the  con- 
sistency with  it  of  particular  events  in  their 
bearing  upon  it.  Our  vision  is  short  and  dim, 
and  only  Omniscience  can  comprehend  the 
bearing  of  all  events  upon  the  purpose  and 
end  of  so  complex  a  system.  But  as  it  is 
plainly  rational  and  ethical  we  are  sure  it  is  not 
self-contradictory,  and  that  unity  is  its  prime 
characteristic.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we 
have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  cosmic 
forces  operating  in  the  lower  nature  of  man, 
while  they  seem  hostile  to  virtue  in  their  im- 
mediate action,  do  in  fact  condition  virtue  of 
the  highest  excellence.  We  are  now  to  con- 
sider the  suffering  of  men  and  animals  in  its 
various  forms,  as  related  to  their  well-being 
and  to  the  divine  wisdom  and  beneficence. 

We  speak  first  of  sufferings  in  their  proper 
influence  upon  men  under  their  divine  allot- 
ments. 

Euripides,  the  Grecian  dramatist,  like  Brown- 
ing in  modern  time,  felt  that  nothing  is  of 
such  deep  interest  as  "  the  education  of  the 
human  soul,"  and  they  affirmed  that  "the 
painful  discipline  of  life  gives  a  truer  and 
larger  sense  of  men's  powers  and  duties." 

Hinton,  in  a  small  volume.  The  Mystery  of 


The  Immortal  Life  221 

Pain,  has  given  some  of  the  best  thoughts 
on  this  subject.  We  quote  the  following  : 
"  When  we  know  pain  is  willingly  borne  for 
another's  sake,  it  not  only  passes  into  the 
category  of  good,  but  it  becomes  emphatically 
the  good.  The  pain  of  martyrs  and  the  losses 
of  self-sacrificing  devotion  are  never  classed 
among  the  evil  things  of  the  world.  They 
are  the  bright  places  rather,  the  culminating 
points  at  which  humanity  has  displayed  its 
true  glory  and  reached  its  perfect  level.  .  .  . 
Without  endurance  life  ceases  to  be  enjoya- 
ble ;  without  pains  accepted,  pleasures  will  not 
be  permanent.  A  life  from  which  pain  is 
banished  becomes  a  life  not  worth  living,  or 
worse,  of  intolerable  tedium  and  disgust. 
Man's  true  and  proper  life  is  of  such  gran- 
deur, of  such  intensity  and  scope,  that  it  would 
absorb  and  turn  into  the  service  of  joy  all  that 
we  now  find  intolerable  pain,  all  agony  and 
loss  It  is  such  life,  so  large,  so  rich  in  love 
that  in  these  sacrifices  it  can  find  its  perfect 
satisfaction.  It  is  a  life  so  truly  lived  in 
others,  so  participant  with  them,  that  utter 
and  unbounded  sacrifice  is  possible.  It  is  the 
life  of  Heaven."     (Pp.  11,  46,  47.) 

Mr.  J.  S.    Mill  regarded    the    character  of 
Jesus  Christ  the  most  pure  and  exalted  that 


222  The  Immortal  Life 

has  appeared  in  this  world,  furnishing  the 
highest  ethical  ideal  for  humanity,  and  at  the 
same  time  being  the  most  worthy  manifesta- 
tion of  divine  perfections.  But  we  read  in  the 
New  Testament  account  of  Jesus  Christ  that 
He  "  was  made  perfect  through  suffering." 
As  illustrated  in  the  best  men,  suffering  has 
been  called  "  the  fuel  of  love."  It  certainly 
tends  to  change  the  hardness  of  our  nature 
into  a  warm  tenderness  and  sympathy  as 
nothing  else  can. 

"  Pain  in  man 
Is  the  high  mission  of  the  frail  and  few." 

This  truth  finds  its  expression  not  only  in 
the  best  poetry  but  in  the  ripest  Christian 
experience  and  in  the  deepest  philosophy. 
Professor  James,  of  Harvard  University,  in 
an  admirable  volume  says  :  "  It  is  a  remark- 
able fact  that  sufferings  and  hardships  do  not 
as  a  rule  abate  the  love  of  life ;  they  serve  on 
the  contrary  to  give  it  a  keener  zest.  The 
sovereign  source  of  melancholy  is  repletion. 
Need  and  struggle  are  what  excite  and  inspire 
us,  and  our  hour  of  triumph  is  what  brings 
the  void.  Not  the  Jews  of  captivity,  but 
those  of  Solomon's  glory  were  those  from 
whom  the  pessimistic  utterance  of  our  Bible 


The  Immortal  Life  223 

came.  .  .  .  Will  not  every  man  declare  that 
a  world  fitted  for  fair-weather  human  beings, 
susceptible  to  every  passing  enjoyment,  but 
without  independence,  courage,  or  fortitude, 
to  be,  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  immeasur- 
ably inferior  to  a  world  formed  to  elicit  from 
them  every  form  of  triumphant  endurance  and 
conquering  energy." — The  Will  to  Believe,  pp. 
47,   lOI. 

It  is  certain  that  this  was  not  intended  to  be 
a  stagnant  world.  Even  the  plant  creeps 
toward  the  light.  The  instinct  of  animals 
leads  to  the  strenuous  activity  of  self-support, 
and  the  higher  the  order  of  beings  the  greater 
the  demand  and  the  wider  the  range  for  their 
activity.  It  is  true  the  frequent  repetition  of 
certain  forms  of  action,  till  they  become  ha- 
bitual, gives  release  from  any  volitional  effort 
and  becomes  almost  unconscious.  But  the 
object  of  this  provision  is  not  to  relieve  from 
exertion  but  to  give  opportunity  to  rise  above 
mere  manipulation  to  higher  forms  and  broader 
ranges  of  mental  activity. 

Professor  Bruce  makes  the  inquiry,  "  What 
is  the  happiness  God  meant  for  us  ?  Should 
it  be  that  from  which  the  painful  is  banished, 
or  that  in  which  pain  is  swallowed  up  in  joy  ? 
Through  sacrifice  is  given  the  opportunity  to 


2  24  The  Immortal  Life 

self-directing  love,  that  transforms  pain,  lends 
dignity  to  the  most  ignominious  lot,  and  decks 
the  rudest  crop  with  flowers."  —  Gifford  Lect- 
ures, 1897,  pp.  118,  324. 

In  a  progressive  creation  we  are  not  to  judge 
a  particular  stage  of  progress  by  itself,  but  as 
related  to  the  whole  of  which  it  is  a  part.  It 
is  the  final  outcome  that  explains  all.  To  an 
observer  the  primeval  fire-mist  would  have 
been  meaningless.  The  earlier  kingdoms  take 
their  significance  and  supreme  value  as  tribu- 
tary to  those  that  follow.  The  germ  is  ex- 
plained by  the  ripened  fruit.  And  the  hard 
conditions  of  our  race,  that  in  themselves  seem 
wholly  evil,  make  known  their  value  in  the 
strong  manhood  and  ripened  character  which  is 
their  proper  outcome.  Life  and  life  more 
abundant  and  of  the  best  possible  quality  is 
the  goal  of  creation.  The  whole  cosmic  move- 
ment has  been  toward  that  goal.  Multitudes 
have  testified  to  priceless  blessings  hidden  in 
the  most  painful  experiences.  They  were  led 
in  ways  they  knew  not  but  through  darkness 
and  conflict  they  emerged  at  length  with  shin- 
ing faces  standing  upon  lofty  heights.  Their 
characters  were  patterned  after  ideals  they  did 
not  create,  and  their  lives  were  made  immortal 
by  experiences   they  could  not  have  chosen. 


The  Immortal  Life  225 

Thus  ^schylus,  Dante,  and  the  bHnd  Mikon 
were  quaUfied  in  the  school  of  sorrow  "  to  en- 
rich the  life-blood  of  the  world  with  their 
song."  Some  of  the  sweetest  hymns,  whose 
melodies  seem  the  very  pulses  of  Christian  joy 
and  triumph,  came  from  hearts  made  sweet  and 
pure  by  the  baptism  of  sorrow.  We  read  of 
Plato  the  "sad  "  and  of  Michael  Angelo  "the 
silent  man."  The  one  wrestled  with  deep  and 
solemn  problems  that  overmatched  his  thought, 
the  other  reached  after  lofty  ideals  beyond  his 
power  to  realize,  but  they  became  greater  by 
their  struggles  and  the  world  of  thought  and 
art  is  richer  through  their  achievements.  Few 
can  imagine  the  humihations  of  Dante  and  his 
anguish  of  spirit  from  hopes  deferred  and  from 
persecution  and  banishment ;  but  there  came 
to  his  bruised  and  sensitive  spirit  at  length 
that  sweet  and  restful  union  with  God,  not 
gained  by  his  own  striving  or  by  his  soaring 
imagination,  but  through  flashes  of  divine  love, 
as  he  has  beautifully  told  us  in  his  immortal 


"  No  wings  were  mine  to  compass  such  a  flight 
Till  in  a  lightning  flash  from  God  on  me 
The  consummation  of  my  longing  came, 
How  all  my  powers  of  soaring  phantasy 
Fainted  within  me  ;  only  this  I  knew: 


2  26  The  Immortal  Life 

That  like  a  wheel  that  neither  hastes  nor  rests 
My  will  revolved  under  the  sway  of  Love — 
The  Love  that  moves  the  sun  and  every  star." 
See  Dr.  Caird's  Evolution  of  Religioti^ 

Vol.  ii.,  p.  272. 

Prof.  J.  P.  Cooke  of  Harvard  University 
gives  expression  to  similar  ideas  :  "  As  then  in 
the  struggle  for  existence,  perfection  is  reached 
through  suffering,  so  in  the  spiritual  world  men 
rise  to  higher  things  through  sorrow ;  and 
though  as  they  rise  their  power  of  suffering  is 
increased,  yet  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  their 
sorrow  is  at  last  turned  into  joy." — TJie  Cre- 
dentials of  Science,  the  Warrant  of  Faith,  p.  318. 

Many  of  the  so-called  evils  of  life  would  turn 
to  blessings  if  met  with  fortitude  and  trust  in 
the  divine  order.  Temptations  instead  of  de- 
basing humanity  and  enslaving  it  to  sin  would 
bring  the  higher  powers  into  action,  thus  con- 
tributing to  strength  and  freedom.  They  would 
be  stepping-stones  to  a  higher  life  instead  of 
stumbling-blocks  to  an  ignominious  fall.  Ac- 
cordingly we  find  that  a  great  part  of  the  suf- 
ferings and  miseries  of  mankind  and  the  worst 
of  all,  men  bring  upon  themselves  by  their  vices, 
their  greed,  their  selfish  ambitions,  and  cruel 
oppressions.  The  darkest  of  all  mysteries  is 
that  of  sin  and  there  is  no  remedy    for   the 


The  Immortal  Life  227 

worst  evils  but  that  which  takes  away  sin.  On 
this  point  we  need  not  dwell,  since  it  is  evident 
this  world  would  be  a  happy  world  if  this  cause 
of  wretchedness  were  removed. 

But  the  highest  qualities  of  character  and 
the  richest  blessings  cannot  be  thrust  upon 
men  without  their  consent  and  co-operation. 
Truth,  wisdom,  virtue  are  not  the  gift  of 
cosmic  forces,  but  the  outcome  of  earnest  per- 
sonal endeavor  under  the  guidance  and  obliga- 
tions of  ethical  law.  Action,  as  well  as  thought, 
is  the  law  of  the  divine  economy.  Action 
solves  more  hard  problems  than  speculative 
thought.  It  clears  away  the  mists  that  dim 
the  spiritual  vision  and  gives  practical  insight 
into  reality.  It  brings  strength  to  wrestle 
with  obstacles  and  healthful  zest  and  enthu- 
siasm for  life's  great  work.  We  have  shown 
from  facts  of  wide  experience  that  the  ten- 
dency of  pain  and  various  forms  of  suffering, 
if  wisely  accepted,  is  to  purify,  enrich,  and 
ennoble  character.  This  is  the  highest  good 
and  as  this,  not  pleasure,  is  the  end  of  ex- 
istence, since  pain  contributes  to  it,  it  has, 
at  least,,  a  partial  explanation.  But  the  sub- 
ject is  broader  and  leads  us  into  wider  re- 
lations which  this  view  does  not  compass,  and 
which  possibly  no  finite  mind  can  at  present 


2  28  The  Immortal  Life 

comprehend.  There  are  evils  which  men  do 
not  bring  on  themselves,  which  are  neither 
strictly  retribution  for  sin,  nor  in  the  proper 
sense  educative  and  disciplinary  for  character. 

Tornadoes,  earthquakes,  volcanic  eruptions, 
and  tidal  waves  come  irrespective  of  human 
agency,  sudden  and  resistless,  often  sweeping 
thousands,  the  evil  and  the  good  together,  to 
instant  destruction. 

We  might  speak  also  of  what  the  innocent 
often  suffer  from  heredity,  in  the  way  of  mal- 
formation, disease,  and  in  constitutional  pro- 
clivities to  hurtful  indulgence,  which  fatally 
overmaster  the  will.  Furthermore  we  think 
of  the  exposure  of  individuals  and  families  to 
various  forms  of  evil  in  their  relation  to  human 
society.  Many  are  born  into  conditions  of 
civil  and  social  life  subject  to  unjust  legisla- 
tion and  oppression,  or  to  men  of  violence  and 
blood.  For  such  a  state  of  things  they  have 
no  responsibility  and  yet  they  suffer  all  man- 
ner of  injustice.  Such  conditions  greatly  try 
our  faith  in  any  overruling  power.  Such  dis- 
order in  the  course  of  things  has  at  least  its 
mysteries  which  we  cannot  fully  explain. 

But  there  are  certain  considerations  which 
may  well  deter  us  from  hasty  judgments. 
Since  science  assumes  that  the  Universe  has  a 


The  Immortal  Life  229 

rational  order,  it  must  also  assume  its  unity 
and  solidarity   as    a   consistent  system.      But 
since  every  part  and  movement  is  related  to 
every  other  part  and  to  the  supreme  end,  the 
fact  of  the   rational   order    of   the  whole  be- 
ing assumed,  it  follows  that  what  seems  at  first 
view  to  be  out  of  place  and  contradictory  is 
after  all  in  harmony  with  the  general  purpose 
and  economy  of  the  system.     As  the  ascent 
of  light  bodies  through  the  atmosphere  seems 
in  contradiction  to  the  law  of  gravity,  but  is 
by  wider  knowledge   easily    explained    as    in 
harmony  with  that  law,  so  the  evils  spoken  of 
above  may  find  their  reconciliation  with  the 
divine  purpose  and  the  beneficent  end  of  cre- 
ation.    Hence  we  speak  of  the  solidarity  of 
the  system  and  of  the  human  race.     If  there 
was  to  be  a  Universe  at  all  it  must  have  inter- 
relations that  bind  all  together  under  general 
laws  and  in  such  complexity  might  of  neces- 
sity work  unavoidable  evils  to  individuals  while 
promoting  the  general  good.     Such  was  the 
judgment   of   the  wisest    of   ancient    philoso- 
phers, Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  also  of  Leib- 
nitz, Martineau,  and  others  in  modern  time. 
We  quote  a  few  lines  from  Dr.  Martineau,  who 
has  treated  this  subject  with  his  usual  profound 
insight  and  clearness  : 


230  The  Immortal  Life 

"To  every  finite  method  (and  to  create  is 
to  enter  the  sphere  of  the  finite)  this  partial 
disability,  this  unequal  approximation  to  the 
ideally  perfect,  inevitably  clings  :  .  .  .  It  is 
vain,  therefore,  to  appeal  to  the  almightiness 
of  God  unless  you  mean  to  throw  away  the 
relations  of  any  established  universe,  and  pass 
into  His  unconditioned  infinitude  ;  in  the  cos- 
mos He  has  abrogated  it,  and  there  is  a  limit 
for  what  you  may  demand  from  it  as  within  its 
scope." — Study  of  Religion,  pp.  80,  81. 

We  must  take  into  view  the  limitations 
which  belong  to  any  finite  system  projected 
into  time  and  space  and  brought  into  unity  for 
a  given  end.  Of  course  it  must  possess  soli- 
darity, by  which  each  part  or  individual  is  re- 
lated to  the  whole  under  the  operation  of 
general  laws.  For  example,  there  are  laws  of 
heredity  which  render  the  individual  liable, 
through  no  fault  of  his  own,  to  inherit  dis- 
ease, malformation,  or  constitutional  tenden- 
cies too  strong  to  be  resisted.  But  while  the 
working  of  the  law  is  often  hard  on  the  indi- 
vidual, still,  on  the  whole,  it  is  for  the  benefit 
of  the  race,  since  it  carries  forward  all  previous 
progress  attained,  passing  over  from  ancestor 
to  descendant  what  required  ages  of  effort  to 
gain.     To  annul    the  law  would    destroy  the 


The  Immortal  Life  231 

solidarity  of  the  race,  and  even  its  suspension 
for  the  relief  of  individuals  would  require  an 
interference  in  the  established  order  which 
might  be  a  serious  detriment  to  the  race. 
There  is  no  question  that  the  evolution  of  the 
race  through  the  ages  has  been  progressive, 
physically,  intellectually,  and  morally,  and  the 
transmission  of  its  gains  through  the  law  of 
heredit}^  while  conserving  its  solidarity,  has 
set  the  race  forward.  At  the  same  time  the 
operation  of  the  law  in  given  conditions  may 
be  injurious  to  individuals  through  limitations 
inherent  in  a  system  of  fixed  and  definite 
relations. 

Again,  this  race  solidarity  is  liable  to  occa- 
sion suffering  and  loss  to  individuals  through 
their  exposure  to  imperfect  and  hurtful  condi- 
tions in  human  society.  By  no  fault  of  their 
own,  they  may  come  under  oppressive  laws, 
or  into  a  community  of  low  aims  and  corrupt- 
ing influences,  to  be  the  prey  of  sharpers  or 
of  revolutionary  violence,  and  yet  contact 
with  human  society  is  a  necessity  of  human 
nature.  Only  in  its  social,  civil,  and  moral 
relations  does  it  find  scope  for  development, 
for  the  upbuilding  of  character  and  for  breadth 
and  fulness  of  rational  life.  Isolation  from 
society  is  far  worse  than  exposure  to  its  evils. 


232  The  Immortal  Life 

Besides  the  advantages  it  brings  in  ordinary 
conditions  counterbalance  its  evils  a  thousand 
fold.  Every  generation  accumulates  and  trans- 
mits great  values  in  knowledge,  in  experience, 
in  institution  of  law  and  government,  in  maxims 
of  wisdom,  in  philosophy,  and  art. 

These  attainments,  together  with  progressive 
discoveries  and  inventions,  which  pass  on  from 
generation  to  generation,  are  cumulative  values 
that  give  breadth  and  momentum  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  society  and  greatly  enrich  the 
life  of  humanity.  Many  things  which  are  now 
among  the  necessaries  of  the  poor  would  have 
been  luxuries  for  the  rich  in  a  past  age.  Be- 
sides the  common  interests  of  mankind  furnish 
motives  to  each  individual  to  improve  the 
condition  and  character  of  the  race. 

But  again  the  solidarity  of  the  broad  sys- 
tem, which  connects  men  organically  with  ex- 
ternal forces,  exposes  them  to  earthquakes, 
tornadoes,  and  conflagrations  which  often 
prove  the  destruction  of  multitudes,  with  no 
power  of  resistance  or  escape.  Such  disasters 
do  not  appear  to  be  retributive  or  disciplinary, 
like  the  evils  which  men  bring  on  themselves. 
They  come  alike  upon  the  evil  and  the  good. 

We  may  assume,  with  Dorner,  that  this 
world  was  adapted  to  beings  morally  imper- 


The  Immortal  Life  233 

feet,  with  natural  conditions  in  harmony  with 
their  foreseen  moral  state.  Or,  with  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau,  we  may  regard  such  disasters  as  in- 
evitable in  a  system  of  definite  relations  under 
general  laws  which,  notwithstanding  inciden- 
tal evils,  work  out  the  general  good.  What- 
ever explanation  we  attempt,  we  find  men 
exposed  to  great  evils  as  related  to  the  great 
world-forces.  Shall  we,  therefore,  give  up  our 
faith  in  the  divine  beneficence  ? 

In  this  connection  let  us  remember  certain 
evident  facts.  First,  such  disasters  are  inci- 
dental, exceptional,  and  very  rare.  Second,  the 
great  world  forces  are  often  all  so  ordered  that 
the  movement  of  our  planet  through  space  is 
quiet,  rhythmical,  and  safe,  as  if  it  were  cradling 
children  of  parental  love.  Third,  the  elements 
in  which  we  live,  mighty  as  they  are,  ordi- 
narily are  gentle,  easily  controlled,  and  really 
doing  us  ready  service  in  a  thousand  ways. 
They  spread  our  sails,  they  turn  our  wheels, 
they  carry  us  from  place  to  place,  they  run  on 
our  errands  with  lightning  speed,  they  bring 
to  our  doors  the  products  of  all  lands,  they 
put  us  in  communication  with  all  nations  and 
peoples,  giving  swift  wings  to  thought,  broad- 
ening our  sympathies,  and  faithfully  serving 
us    in    our    far-reaching    beneficence    for    the 


234  The  Immortal  Life 

welfare  of  our  race,  and  in  the  reflex  benefits 
that  ennoble  our  character  and  enrich  our  life. 
And  future  discoveries  will  doubtless  reveal 
still  other  forces  awaiting  our  command. 

The  energies  that  move  the  world  must,  of 
course,  be  powerful,  and  in  a  sense  resistless. 
The  wonder  is  not  that  we  should  occasionally 
experience  harm  from  their  complex  move- 
ments, but  that  in  their  combined  operation 
they  should  be  so  harmoniously  adjusted,  so 
pliant  and  tractable,  as  if  tamed  and  harnessed 
like  faithful  and  trusty  steeds  for  our  com- 
mand. Instead  of  complaining  at  our  hard- 
ships we  have  occasion  to  be  grateful  that 
such  mighty  forces  are  for  our  convenience 
and  comfort,  entrusted  to  our  habitual  use. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  see  only  the  evils  incident 
to  our  lot,  which  after  all  may  be  unavoidable 
in  the  best  system,  while  the  system  itself  in 
its  combined  operation  is  so  largely  beneficent. 
The  solidarity  essential  to  the  system,  which 
makes  us  liable  to  evils  from  the  law  of  hered- 
ity and  exposes  us  in  occasional  conflict  with 
natural  forces,  secures  to  us  advantages  that  a 
thousand  fold  outweigh  the  evils  coming  with 
it.  The  pessimistic  spirit  is  emphatically  nar- 
row, one-sided,  and  superficial.  The  more  com- 
prehensive our  view  the  more  evident  on  the 


The  Immortal  Life  235 

broad  scale  is  the  bountiful  and  loving  care  of 
our  Maker. 

We  have  left  but  small  space,  though  pos- 
sibly all  that  is  needed,  to  speak  of  suffering 
in  the  animal  creation.  Mr.  Mill  gave  em- 
phasis to  this,  seeing  clearly  that  the  sinfulness 
of  men  often  brought  upon  them  merited  retri- 
bution ;  but  the  infliction  of  pain  on  innocent 
animals  he  pronounced  ''cruel  and  unjust.'' 
In  this  judgment  he  differed  widely  from  men 
whose  opportunities  qualified  them  for  a  wiser 
judgment.  A.  R.  Wallace  on  this  point  says  : 
"  On  the  whole  we  conclude  that  the  popular  \ 
idea  of  the  struggle  for  existence  entailing  \ 
misery  and  pain  upon  the  animal  world,  is  the  \ 
very  reverse  of  the  truth.  What  it  really  ) 
brings  about  is  the  maximum  enjoyment  of 
life  with  the  minimum  of  suffering  and  pain. 
Given  the  necessity  of  death  and  reproduction 
(and  without  these  there  would  have  been  no 
progressive  development  of  the  organic  world), 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  system  by  which  a 
greater  balance  of  happiness  could  have  been 
assured."  He  quotes  from  Darwin  as  follows  : 
"The  poet's  picture  of  Nature  as  'red  in 
tooth  and  claw  with  ravine  '  is  a  picture  of 
the  evil  read  into  it  by  our  exaggerations,  the 
reality  being  made  up  of  full  and  happy  lives, 


2^6  The  Immortal  Life 

usually  terminating  by  the  quickest  and  least 
painful  of  deaths."  See  Wallace's  Darwinisju, 
pp.  39,  40. 

Life  is  superior  to  non-living  matter,  and  we 
find  numberless  grades  of  it,  from  the  lowest 
of  the  vegetal  to  the  highest  of  the  sentient 
creation.  It  abounds  everywhere  in  the  waters 
and  in  the  atmosphere.  In  fact  matter  is  use- 
less except  as  ministering  to  life.  The  lower 
grades  condition  the  higher,  and  while  the  low- 
est have  their  measure  of  good,  and  while  all 
below  are  subservient  to  man,  all,  with  as  little 
suffering  as  possible,  share  the  bounty  of  the 
Creator.  We  quote  briefly  from  Dr.  Marti- 
neau.  "  The  real  question  is  simply  this, 
whether  the  laws  of  which  complaint  is  made 
work  such  harm  that  they  ought  never  to  have 
been  created,  or  whether  in  spite  of  occasional 
disasters  in  their  path,  this  sentient  existence 
of  which  they  are  the  condition  has  in  its  his- 
tory a  vast  excess  of  blessing." — Study  of  Re- 
ligion, ii,  p.  78-79. 

This  question  admits  of  but  one  answer. 

That  the  animal  creation  do  in  normal  con- 
ditions enjoy  life,  is  manifest  in  their  affection 
for  offspring,  in  the  playful  sports  of  the  young, 
in  the  song  of  birds  and  in  the  many  ways  in 
which  they  express  their  love  of  life.      Nothing 


The  Immortal  Life  237 

is  created  for  the  sake  of  pain.  It  is  wholly 
incidental  and  all  the  ranks  of  sentient  exist- 
ence according  to  their  measure  find  life  a 
blessing. 

Finally  while  the  divine  beneficence  is  mani- 
fest in  all  the  lower  forms  of  life  these  at  the 
same  time  are  made  tributary  to  the  nobler 
life  of  man.  For  all  the  lower  kingdoms  are 
represented  in  the  animal,  and  man  by  possess- 
ing the  animal  nature,  is  linked  organically  to 
all  the  kingdoms  and  is  thereby  qualified  to 
appreciate  and  sympathize  with  animal  life  and 
to  make  all  the  forces  of  Nature  subservient  to 
his  rational  and  ethical  life  and  therefore  to 
serve  the  interests  of  righteousness. 


NO  PROOF  THAT  THE  DISSOLU- 
TION OF  THE  BODY  IS  THE  EX- 
TINCTION OF  THE  RATIONAL 
SPIRIT 

"  The  only  scientific  plea  on  which  the  possibility  of  immortality 
can  be  denied  to  us,  is  based  on  the  fact  that  mind  in  this  life  is  so 
intimately  bound  up  with  physiological  conditions.  Once  grant,  how- 
ever, that  the  thinking  principle  in  man  is  distinct  from  the  body 
which  it  uses  as  its  instrument,  and  no  reason  can  be  shown,  as  Bishop 
Butler  demonstrated  long  ago,  why  it  should  not  survive  the  shock  of 
the  dissolution  we  call  death.  Death  need  not  even  be  the  suspen- 
sion of  its  powers." 

Professor  James  Orr,  D.D.,   Kerr  Lectures,  1890-91,  p.  152. 


239 


CHAPTER  XIII 

NO  PROOF  THAT  THE  DISSOLUTION  OF 
THE  BODY  IS  THE  EXTINCTION  OF  THE 
RATIONAL  SPIRIT 

OUR  main  purpose  in  this  discussion  is  to 
show  that  the  world  as  a  rational  system 
is  ordered  in  the  interest  of  righteousness. 
We  have  shown  that  the  expectation  of  the 
future  life,  tends  to  promote  it  and  that  the 
denial  of  that  life,  by  taking  away  the  most 
effective  motives  to  virtue  must  greatly  hinder 
its  practice.  The  same  denial  by  taking  from 
man  his  chief  dignity  and  value  and  emptying 
the  world  of  its  meaning,  tends  to  paralyze  all 
high  endeavor  and  drop  human  life  to  a  lower 
level. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  what  have  we  to  do 
with  consequences,  since  the  question  at  issue  is 
one  oi  fact  and  the  fact  to  all  appearances  is, 
that  nothing  survives  the  death  of  the  body. 

Before  showing  that  there  is  no  ground  for 
assuming  this  as  fact  we  hope  to  show  that  the 

i6  241 


242  The  Immortal  Life 

consequences  of  such  assumption  have  an  im- 
portant bearing  upon  the  truth  we  are  seeking, 
especially  if  they  would  tend  to  defeat  the  very 
end  of  man's  creation. 

It  is  true  that  at  death  what  we  term  spirit 
life  disappears  from  the  range  of  the  senses. 
But  the  senses  can  give  only  negative  testi- 
mony, and  those  principles  which  are  the  basis 
of  all  reality  are  beyond  their  reach  and  can 
be  grasped  only  by  the  rational  understand- 
ing. Men  are  moral  beings,  and  as  such  they 
are  under  ethical  law  which  is  the  supreme 
law  of  rational  life  and  which  involves  their 
ethical  and  spiritual  relationship  to  Him  who 
ordained  and  administers  it.  Now  if  death 
ends  all,  it  not  only  severs  this  relationship 
of  man  to  ethical  law  and  to  Him  who  ordained 
it,  but  it  drops  man  from  the  spiritual  realm  to 
which  he  belongs  and  makes  him  altogether 
subject  to  physical  law  as  the  supreme  law  of 
the  world.  This  would  reverse  the  whole  cos- 
mic order  which  subordinates  the  lower  to  the 
higher  in  rank  and  worth,  and  would  anni- 
hilate those  ethical  and  spiritual  interests 
which  are  of  supreme  value.  Now  to  drop 
man  to  the  physical  plane  and  to  take  from 
him  by  his  extinction  all  permanent  interests 
and  obligations  not  only  puts  an  end  to  all  the 


The  Immortal  Life  243 

sanctities  of  life,  but  to  the  proper  worth  and 
significance  of  the  noblest  of  the  creative 
work. 

By  thus  depriving  man  of  all  permanent 
worth  and  interest  you  diminish  the  motives 
to  virtue  and  righteousness  becomes  compa- 
ratively of  little  account.  Body  and  spirit 
alike,  with  all  human  interests  soon  turn  to 
dust  and  come  to  nothing.  This  materialis- 
tic theory  is  totally  at  variance  with  that 
which  we  term  rational  and  ethical,  for  their 
postulates  are  directly  contradictory.  The 
one  denies  the  moral  order  of  the  world  and 
the  possibility  of  the  ethical  life.  The  other 
affirms  the  reality  of  both  with  the  implication 
of  a  continuous  life  beyond  the  grave.  Mat- 
thew Arnold  expressed  the  general  conviction 
in  affirming,  "  There  is  a  Power  not  ourselves 
that  makes  for  righteousness."  Every  thought- 
ful man  knows  his  solemn  oblisfations  as  under 
moral  law.  Human  society  recognizes  the 
same  law  as  underlying  all  human  legislation 
and  that  there  is  no  real  stability  or  prosperity 
on  any  other  basis.  So  the  moral  order  of  the 
world  and  the  necessities  of  the  spiritual  nature 
of  man  are  in  harmony  and  this  harmony  is  the 
highest  test  of  truth.  We  quote  the  following 
from  Professor  Seth  of  Edinburgh  University  : 


244  The  Immortal  Life 

"  To  understand  the  world  is  not  merely  to 
unravel  the  sequences  of  its  intricate  facts,  so 
long  as  we  cannot  bring  the  order  of  things 
into  harmony  with  the  moral  sense  of  mankind 
we  cannot  be  said  to  have  made  existence  in- 
telligible ;  the  world  still  remains  as  in  Hume's 
words  a  riddle,  an  enigma,  an  inexplicable  mys- 
tery."— Mans  Place  in  the  Cosmos,  p.  28. 

Now  a  theory  which  contradicts  the  moral 
sense  of  man,  by  denying  his  ethical  relation 
to  God  and  his  worth  as  in  His  image,  subject- 
ing his  spiritual  nature  to  mere  physical  condi- 
tions, thus  enthroning  the  material  over  the 
spiritual,  and  the  temporal  over  the  eternal, 
not  only  reverses  the  divine  order  but  defeats 
the  end  of  man's  existence.  It  cannot  there- 
fore be  in  consistency  with  a  rationally  or- 
dered world.  What  so  belittles  man,  depriving 
him  of  any  permanent  interest  in  anything, 
must  tend  to  paralyze  every  high  endeavor  to 
which  his  nobler  nature  would  prompt  him, 
must  be  false  as  contrary  to  the  system  to 
which  he  belongs.  We  affirm  therefore  that 
consequences  must  be  taken  account  of  in  our 
determination  of  fact  and  truth. 

Professor  Le  Conte  affirms  :  "  Whatever  in 
the  lone  run  and  in  the  final  outcome  tends  to 
the  bad,\n  human  conduct  ought  to  be  received. 


The  Immortal  Life  245 

even  by  the  honest  lover  of  truth  with  distrust 
as  containing  essential  error." — Evolution  and 
Religious  Thought,  p.  277. 

The  artist  in  painting  a  portrait  seeks  to  ex- 
press what  is  highest  and  best,  as  true  to  his 
subject.  Why  should  we  assume  the  lowest 
and  meanest  interpretation  of  man  and  the 
majestic  Universe  of  God,  expresses  the  true 
outcome  of  His  creative  wisdom  ? 

We  have  shown  that  man  is  in  fact  the  im- 
age of  God,  and  that  the  Most  High  has  made 
this  vast  Universe  a  medium  of  His  self-revela- 
tion for  intelligent  and  ennobling  intercourse 
with  man,  to  exalt  him  into  His  fellowship  and 
likeness.  This  cannot  mean  that  a  creature 
made  to  be  one  with  God  is  to  be  one  with 
the  dust  of  the  earth.  The  fact  also  that  the 
world  has  ever  been  progressing  toward  higher 
and  higher  ends,  should  teach  us  that  man  as 
the  chief  outcome  is  to  have  a  nobler  destiny. 
This  view  is  well  expressed  by  Dr.  John 
Fiske :  "  The  glorious  consummation  toward 
which  organic  evolution  is  tending  is  the  pro- 
duction of  the  highest  and  most  perfect  psy- 
chical life.  When  from  the  dawn  of  life  we 
see  all  things  working  together  toward  the 
evolution  of  the  highest  spiritual  attributes  of 
man,  we  know,  however,  the  words  may  stumble 


246  The  Immortal  Life 

in  which  we  try  to  say  it,  that  God  is  in 
the  highest  sense  a  inoral  being.  The  evolu- 
tionary course  of  phenomena  is  none  other 
than  the  Infinite  Power  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness."— Idea  of  God,  pp.  261,  262. 

Our  purpose  in  this  chapter  thus  far  has 
been  to  show  that  the  ethical  view  of  the  world 
has  a  firm  basis  m  fact,  and  this  as  it  excludes 
the  materialistic  and  mechanical  view  gives  it 
no  standing  whatever. 

But  notwithstanding  man's  moral  relation- 
ship to  God,  and  the  evident  divine  purpose  to 
make  this  relationship  one  of  fellowship  with 
the  life  eternal,  it  is  asserted  by  some  that 
man  has  no  life  or  spiritual  nature  distinct 
from  the  body,  and  that  they  perish  together. 

We  come  then  to  our  special  point, — Is  there 
any  ground,  scientific  or  otherwise,  for  assum- 
ing that  the  dissolution  of  the  bodily  organism 
is,  by  any  known  necessity  or  in  fact,  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  rational  personality  ? 

All  admit  that  what  we  call  the  rational 
mind  is  in  rank  and  dignity  immeasurably  supe- 
rior to  the  bodily  tissues.  Furthermore  these, 
comprising  the  senses,  nerves,  muscles,  and 
the  whole  framework,  are  plainly  instrumental 
for  the  psychical  life  as  the  crowning  endow- 
ment of  humanity.      True  the  body  and  spirit 


The  Immortal  Life  247 

are  closely  united.  But  their  functions,  their 
laws  of  action,  and  their  environment  are  to- 
tally different.  No  one  can  identify  thought, 
feeling,  will,  and  character  which  belong  to 
the  one,  with  mechanical  motion  or  chemi- 
cal action,  or  the  tissues  which  belong  to  the 
other.  They  have  nothing  in  common.  The 
body  lives  on  material  food  ;  it  moves  from 
place  to  place  by  physical  laws  ;  it  has  to  do 
only  with  the  physical,  the  material.  The 
mind,  on  the  contrary,  lives  on  truth,  on  beauty 
and  harmony,  and  has  to  do  with  ethical  and 
spiritual  laws.  These  are  all  spiritual  reali- 
ties. The  body  has  its  limitations  in  time  and 
space  ;  its  action  is  confined  to  present  time 
and  to  particular  localities.  The  mind  has  its 
broad  range  in  the  past  and  the  future  and  in 
excursions  to  the  stars.  It  grasps  the  princi- 
ples, the  causes,  and  relations  of  its  vast 
environment,  the  Universe.  Having  thus  en- 
tirely different  functions,  dealing  with  different 
orders  of  realities,  acting  under  different  laws, 
and  seeking  different  ends,  they  belong  to  dif- 
ferent realms.  Thus  differing  in  their  nature, 
ends,  and  laws  of  action,  what  warrant  is  there 
so  to  identify  them  as  to  assume  for  them  the 
same  destiny?  "It  is  a  mistake,"  says  Dr. 
Lotze,    "to   imagine   that    the    mere    organic 


248  The  Immortal  Life 

history  covers  the  whole  field  of  the  problem, 
and  by  its  termination  demonstrates  conscious- 
ness to  be  extinct.  There  is  no  such  known 
conjunction  between  the  bodily  organism  and 
the  mental  life  as  to  bind  the  two  factors  in 
indissoluble  unity." 

Physiological  psychology  has  been  made  the 
basis  of  various  assumptions  concerning  the 
nature  and  functions  of  the  psychic  life.  One 
is  that  mental  processes,  thought,  feeling,  and 
willing  are  identical  with  molecular  changes  in 
brain  substances. 

Another  is  that  all  forms  of  consciousness 
are  but  the  inner  aspects  of  brain-changes,  and 
that  these  inner  aspects  or  shadowy  attendants 
have  no  function  or  agency  as  factors  in  the 
psychical  life.  Now  these  are  simply  conjec- 
tures, or  speculations  that  have  no  scientific 
basis.  They  do  not  explain  a  single  phenome- 
non of  the  mental  life.  Professor  Tyndall, 
after  attempting  to  give  a  physical  explanation 
of  consciousness,  says  frankly  :  "  The  passage 
from  the  physics  of  the  brain  to  the  corre- 
sponding facts  of  consciousness  is  zmthinkable. 
Granted  that  a  definite  thought  and  a  definite 
molecular  action  in  the  brain  occur  simul- 
taneously, we  do  not  possess  the  intellectual 
organ,  nor  apparently  any  rudiment  of  the  or- 


The  Immortal  Life  249 

gan,  which  would  enable  us  to  pass  by  a  process 
of  reasoning  from  one  to  the  other.  They  ap- 
pear together  but  we  know  not  why.  Were 
our  minds  and  senses  so  expanded,  strength- 
ened and  illuminated  as  would  enable  us  to 
see  and  feel  the  very  molecules  of  the  brain  ; 
were  we  capable  of  following  all  the  motions, 
all  the  groupings,  all  the  electric  discharges 
if  such  there  be,  and  we  were  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  corresponding  states  of  feel- 
ings, we  should  be  as  far  from  the  solution  of 
the  problem,  how  the  physical  processes  are 
connected  with  the  facts  of  consciousness  :  the 
chasm  between  the  two  classes  would  still 
remain  intellectually  impassable." — Fragments 
of  Scie7ice,  p.  420. 

If  then,  as  all  agree,  there  is  a  chasm  be- 
tween the  physical  and  the  psychical  life  which 
no  man  can  bridge,  who  can  affirm  that  they 
are  so  inseparably  linked  together  that  they 
may  not  part  company,  the  spirit  unharmed 
seeking  its  kind,  the  body  resolved  into  its 
native  dust  ? 

There  are  substantial  reasons  for  adopting 
this  conclusion. 

In  the  first  place  the  physical  organism,  as 
we  have  said,  is  the  instrument  for  the  service  of 
the  rational  mind.     Its  senses  present  outward 


250  The  Immortal  Life 

phenomena  for  the  mind  to  interpret  into 
truth  as  a  permanent  possession  after  the  phe- 
nomena have  passed  away.  We  find  indeed 
that  the  loss  of  one  sense  quickens  the  mind 
to  a  sharper  use  of  those  that  remain.  Fur- 
thermore, such  loss  is  the  occasion  of  summon- 
ing into  more  vigorous  action  the  powers 
of  memory,  imagination,  and  constructive 
thought.  Why  may  not  the  spirit,  after  part- 
ing with  all  the  bodily  senses,  yet  retaining  in 
the  form  of  interpreted  fact  and  truth  what 
they  had  been  the  means  of  supplying,  be 
summoned  to  still  higher  and  more  vigorous 
activities  with  a  wider  grasp  of  truth  ?  This 
would  but  continue  a  form  of  life  already 
experienced  in  earthly  conditions.  In  the 
second  place,  the  union  of  the  spiritual  mind 
with  the  physical  organism  brings  it  into 
those  relations,  social,  civil,  and  religious, 
which  make  for  its  development.  In  these  re- 
lations to  human  society,  and  to  Nature,  it  is 
placed  in  a  school  of  intellectual  and  moral 
education  and  of  practical  training  and  dis- 
cipline for  the  formation  and  upbuilding  of 
character,  the  product  of  absolute  value.  Fur- 
thermore, since  all  the  lower  kino-doms  are 
represented  in  the  physical  organism,  it  is 
brought  into  sympathetic  contact  with  univer- 


The  Immortal  Life  251 

sal  nature  as  a  divine  manifestation.  The 
field  thus  opened  is  broad.  The  education 
which  should  be  preparative  for  something 
permanent  and  progressive  is  only  begun. 
The  goal,  whether  it  be  knowledge  or  charac- 
ter, is  far  off  and  is  not  reached  in  present 
conditions. 

"  We  must  believe  for  still  we  hope 
That  in  a  world  of  larger  scope 
What  here  is  faithfully  begun 
Will  be  completed,  not  undone." 

A.  H.  Clough. 

In  the  third  place,  when  the  bodily  organ- 
ism has  attained  its  full  development  and  has 
ended  its  instrumental  service,  the  rational 
spirit  seems  only  to  have  begun  its  career. 
The  scientist,  the  poet,  the  artist,  the  philoso- 
pher and  the  philanthropist,  the  saint,  when  the 
death  of  the  body  approaches,  are  all  reaching 
forward  to  higher  attainment.  Not  one  of 
them  has  realized  his  ideals.  From  every 
direction  come  solicitations  for  further  and 
better  achievements.  The  Perfect  is  still  in 
the  future,  and  even  present  failures  intensify 
the  longing  to  reach  it. 

Professor  Hitchcock,  the  eminent  geologist, 
when  near  his  end,  is  reported  to  have  said  : 
"  I   hope  the  Lord  will  give    opportunity    to 


252  The  Immortal  Life 

study  with  the  hammer  the  rocks  of  Mars  and 
of  other  worlds." 

Agassiz,  as  death  approached,  was  full  of 
enthusiasm  in  his  study  of  types  of  animal 
structure,  for  amid  infinite  variations  he  saw  in 
the  persistent  type  the  thought  of  the  Creator, 
and  he  thus  linked  scientific  with  divine  know- 
ledge as  one  and  the  same.  This  passion, 
whether  for  knowledge  or  goodness,  does  not 
reach  its  goal  in  this  life,  and  the  sudden 
ending  of  all  pursuit  of  knowledge  or  character 
at  death  would  be  out  of  harmony  with  the 
progressive  order  of  the  world.  This  assump- 
tion, there  being  no  scientific  ground  for  it,  is 
irrational.  "By  no  possibility,"  says  Dr. 
Fiske,  "can  thought  and  feeling  be  in  any 
sense  the  product  of  matter.  Nothing  could 
be  more  unscientific  than  the  famous  remark 
of  Cabanis  that  '  the  brain  secretes  thought  as 
the  liver  secretes  bile.'  It  cannot  even  be 
correct  to  say  that  thought  goes  on  in  the 
brain.  What  goes  on  in  the  brain  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly complex  series  of  molecular  move- 
ments, with  which  thought  and  feeling  are  in 
some  unknown  way  correlated,  not  as  effects 
or  causes,  but  as  concomitants.  The  material- 
istic conception  that  the  life  of  the  spirit  ac- 
cordingly ends  with  the  life  of   the  body,   is 


The  Immortal  Life  253 

perhaps  the  most  colossal  instance  of  baseless 
assumption  that  is  known  in  the  history  of 
philosophy." — Destiny  of  Man,  pp.  100,  109. 
The  distinction  between  body  and  mind  is 
fundamental.  As  was  said  above,  the  phenom- 
ena, the  laws  of  action  and  the  ends,  are  totally 
different  in  the  two  cases,  and  they  belong  to 
different  kingdoms.  Molecular  motions  and 
changes  of  brain  substance  doubtless  accom- 
pany all  mental  action.  But  in  all  rational  pro- 
cesses, the  mind,  the  intelligent  agent,  takes  the 
initiative,  using  the  brain,  as  it  does  the  senses, 
as  its  instrument.  In  reasoning,  for  example, 
logical  relation  or  the  connection  of  one  fact 
or  truth  with  another  requires  an  intelligent 
thinker,  who  orders  his  thought  and  draws  his 
conclusion,  not  according  to  physical  or  chemi- 
cal laws  operating  in  brain  movements,  but  ac- 
cording to  the  perceived  relations  of  fact  to  fact 
and  truth  to  truth.  Who  is  warranted  to  assume 
that  molecules  care  for  logic,  or  that  the  laws 
of  chemical  or  electric  action  in  the  brain  are 
one  with  the  processes  of  logical  thought,  or 
with  delight  in  beauty,  or  with  adoring  rever- 
ence in  holy  worship  ?  .  .  .  Do  not  physical 
and  chemical  laws  belong  to  a  lower  plane  ? 
Have  material  molecules,  in  their  changes 
under  physical  and  chemical  laws,  a  spiritual 


2  54  The  Immortal  Life 

and  ethical  character,  or  are  they  the  pliant  ser- 
vants of  an  intelligent  and  personal  power,  who 
determines  his  own  ends  of  action  under  a 
higher  law  ?  The  servant  does  not  do  business 
on  his  own  account,  nor  should  he  assume  the 
prerogative  of  his  superior.  It  would  be  a 
strange  solution  of  an  ethical  problem  to 
charge  our  guilt  upon  forces  that  operate  on 
the  lowest  planes  of  natural  law.  Even  science 
and  philosophy,  as  well  as  ethical  life,  depend 
upon  a  personal  agent,  who  puts  forth  action 
from  his  own  centre  of  consciousness  and  puts 
a  rational  interpretation  upon  his  past  experi- 
ences by  recalling  them  as  his  own  and  recog- 
nizing in  them  his  persistent  identity.  Who 
can  interpret  and  shape  into  the  unity  of 
rational  thought  his  past  experiences,  except  as 
possessing  the  unifying  power  of  one  and  the 
same  thinking  and  acting  personality  ?  To  at- 
tribute the  profoundest  rational  insight,  the 
loftiest  sentiment,  and  the  holiest  purpose  to 
brain  changes  under  mechanical  and  chemical 
laws  is  to  drop  man  from  the  plane  of  rational 
and  ethical  life  and  resolve  manhood  itself  into 
the  play  and  pull  of  irresponsible  atoms  !  We 
quote  in  this  connection  from  an  eminent  Ger- 
man scientist,  Du  Bois  Reymond  : 

"  It  is  absolutely  and  forever  inconceivable 


The  Immortal  Life  255 

that  a  number  of  carbon,  hydrogen,  nitrogen, 
and  oxygen  atoms  should  be  otherwise  than 
indifferent  to  their  own  motions  and  positions 
at  present  and  in  future.  It  is  utterly  incon- 
ceivable how  consciousness  should  result  from 
a  form  of  motion.  It  has  lost  every  char- 
acteristic of  its  original  nature,  and  its  former 
acquaintance  will  not  own  it  as  of  their  kith 
and  kin." 

Having  shown  that  there  is  a  broad  dis- 
tinction between  body  and  spirit,  that  they 
have  totally  different  functions,  that  they  act 
under  different  laws  and  for  different  ends, 
and  so  belong  to  different  kingdoms,  we  seem 
warranted  to  anticipate  for  them  different 
destinies.  For  the  spirit,  when  its  earthly 
body  drops  away,  we  may  expect  a  higher 
form  of  life  and  an  orgfanism  suited  to  its  new 
conditions.  What  if  we  know  not  its  new 
conditions  or  the  precise  nature  of  the  body 
that  is  to  be  the  instrument  of  its  higher  life  ? 
The  embryo  life  never  knows  the  world  it 
is  soon  to  enter ;  nor  does  the  caterpillar 
know  the  body  that  is  to  lift  it  from  the  earth 
into  freer  movement  in  the  sunlight.  The 
Most  High  has  not  exhausted  His  resources 
in  providing  for  worms  and  insects.  The 
vital  principle  itself  has  organific  functions,  and 


256  The  Immortal  Life 

the  living  spirit  may,  for  aught  we  know,  be 
qualified  to  put  forth  such  functions  and  take 
to  itself  a  fitting  organism.  Scientists  tell  us 
of  an  ethereal  element,  of  inconceivably  fine 
texture  and  of  amazing  elasticity,  that  now 
in  some  ways  ministers  to  our  spiritual  life. 
With  marvellous  swiftness  and  delicacy  it  now 
touches  our  sensitive  organism  with  revela- 
tions of  light  and  color,  bringing  messages 
from  the  stars.  It  seems  allied  to  spiritual 
natures,  and  the  service  it  now  renders  may 
be  but  the  beginning  of  what  is  in  reserve. 
It  may  put  us  in  communication  with  in- 
telligences now  invisible,  and  with  distant 
worlds.  He  who  transforms  the  worm  into 
a  winged  creature,  resplendent  with  colors, 
to  move  freely  in  an  atmosphere  of  light,  and 
to  live  on  the  nectar  of  flowers,  can  exchange 
these  earthly  bodies  for  organic  structures  so 
finely  textured  and  elastic  that  they  may  play 
in  the  ethereal  element  as  the  insect's  wing 
plays  in  the  enfolding  atmosphere. 

Of  course,  in  the  absence  of  positive  knowl- 
edge of  matters  of  this  nature,  we  can  only 
conjecture.  But,  knowing  that  the  spirit  is 
distinct  from  the  body,  and  that,  as  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  it  is  to  partake  of  His  life, 
every    rational    consideration    favors    its  con- 


The  Immortal  Life  257 

tinuance,  in  some  organic  form  and  with  new 
and  higher  functions.  Aheady  we  possess 
some  power  of  intuitive  insight  into  invisible 
realities  ;  for  example,  into  first  principles 
and  into  spiritual  relations  never  revealed  by 
the  senses.  Still  higher  forms  of  intuition 
may  introduce  us  to  other  and  higher  realities 
of  the  spiritual  world  and  to  mysteries  now 
hidden  from  us.  The  present  organism,  as 
made  to  serve  the  spirit  as  its  end  in  the  way 
of  disciplinary  education,  falls  away.  But  the 
spirit  has  in  itself  the  end  of  its  own  existence. 
It  is  not  instrumental  for  a  higher  end,  but 
it  has  affinities  for  a  higher  form  of  existence 
and  a  worth  transcending  all  material  values. 
The  assumption  that  rational  consciousness 
is  the  mere  appendage  of  brain-changes,  or 
the  ghostly  shadows  of  molecular  movements, 
without  agency  or  reality  of  its  own,  has  no 
scientific  basis  and  is  contrary  to  all  rational 
probabilities.  This  attempt  to  change  man- 
hood, personality,  spirit,  the  most  substan- 
tial of  all  realities,  into  the  mere  motion  of 
molecules  in  the  brain,  carries  on  its  face  an 
absurdity  which  is  a  refutation  of  the  theory. 
All  material  nature  is  instrumental  for  spirit. 
It  was  millions  of  years  before  the  progression 
of    Nature   reached    its  goal    in    man.     That 


258  The  Immortal  Life 

goal  having  been  reached,  the  affinities,  the 
evident  capabilities  and  the  intrinsic  value  of 
man,  made  in  God's  image,  mean  a  larger 
career.  Spirit  life,  the  highest  outcome  of 
creation,  was  evidently  not  made  to  end  its 
history  with  that  of  the  body  that  for  a  time 
rendered  it  service.  An  ethical  nature  which 
belongs  to  the  spiritual  kingdom  is  not  the 
equivalent  of  heat  or  mechanical  motion,  to 
be  resolved  back  into  the  common  reservoir 
of  physical  forces.  Its  interests  are  those  for 
which  creation  exists.  Its  alliance  is  with 
God.  Its  true  life  is  divine  and  therefore 
immortal,  in  its  destiny. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

"  We  need  to  be  convinced  of  some  intellectual  connection  in 
which  we  trace  the  destiny  of  human  life  and  the  eternal  significance 
of  all  moral  effort.  There  is  a  view  of  self-sacrificing  effort  for  a 
better  condition  of  things  in  which  we  shall  not  participate  ;  but 
what  gives  unity  and  meaning  to  the  process  is,  that  the  benefits 
gained  in  time  are  not  lost  for  those  who  helped  to  win  but  did  not 
enjoy  them." — Lotze,  Alicrocosinus^  ii.,  p.  484. 

"  I  do  not  know  that  there  is  anything  in  Nature  (unless  it  be  the 
reputed  blotting  out  of  suns  in  the  stellar  heavens)  which  can  be 
compared  in  wastefulness  with  the  extinction  of  great  minds  ;  their 
gathered  resources,  their  matured  skill,  their  luminous  insight,  their 
unfailing  tact,  are  not  like  instincts  that  can  be  handed  down  ;  they 
are  absolutely  personal  and  inalienable,  grand  conditions  for  future 
power,  unavailable  for  the  race  and  perfect  for  the  future  growth  of 
the  individual  ;  if  that  growth  is  not  to  be,  the  most  brilliant  genius 
bursts  and  vanishes  as  a  firework  in  the  night."  —  Martineau, 
Study  of  Religion^  ii.,  p.  356. 


259 


CHAPTER  XIV 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

THE  object  of  this  discussion  is  to  show 
that  the  inherent  greatness  of  man's  ca- 
pacities, correlated  as  they  are  to  infinite  envi- 
ronment and  especially  his  kinship  and  moral 
relationship  to  God,  involving  the  possibility  of 
likeness  to  his  character  and  of  participation 
in  his  eternal  life,  implies  that  man  is  made  to 
attain  a  life  of  absolute  worth,  one  with  that 
of  God,  and  therefore  immortal. 

We  have  assumed  what  all  now  admit,  that 
the  world  is  rationally  ordered,  that  is,  ordered 
by  a  rational  intelligence  like  that  of  man, 
since  man  as  rational  interprets  its  order. 
But  a  rational  system  presupposes  an  end  in 
view  as  its  constructive  principle,  and  a  rational 
mind  has  a  supreme  regard  for  the  right  as 
well  as  for  the  true,  so  that,  in  the  nature  of 
the  case,  the  presumption  is  that  the  world 
has  a  moral  order,  in  which  all  things  are 
made  subservient  to  the  establishment  of  truth 

261 


262  The  Immortal  Life 

and  righteousness  as  the  supreme  interest  and 
end. 

This  presumption,  based  on  the  principle 
which  is  fundamental  in  a  rational  system, 
namely,  that  it  is  ethical  if  rational,  should 
greatly  weaken,  if  not  entirely  nullify  the  force 
of  objections  as  urged  by  Professor  Huxley 
and  Mr.  Mill,  which  are  based  on  imperfect 
knowledge  of  surface  appearances.  Besides, 
the  object  of  the  system  is  properly  judged  by 
the  end  which  its  chief  outcome  was  made  to 
answer.  Now,  if  rational  beings,  or  men  as 
rational,  are  the  chief  outcome  their  supreme 
endowments,  reason  and  conscience,  are  given 
for  the  attainment  of  truth  and  righteousness. 

Their  environment  also,  as  rationally  or- 
dered, must  be  fitted  to  educate  and  discipline 
them  for  the  same  end.  This  is  made  evident 
when  it  is  seen  that  man's  essential  environ- 
ment is  that  immanent  and  divine  Intelligence, 
which  is  self-revealing  in  the  entire  cosmic 
order,  and  precisely  fitted  to  educate  men  in 
divine  knowledge  and  to  exalt  them  into  fel- 
lowship with  the  divine  life.  It  seems  plain, 
therefore,  that  man,  as  capable  of  interpreting 
the  divine  order  of  the  world,  thus  showing 
his  kinship  with  the  divine  intelligence  and  his 
capability  for  attaining  the  divine  likeness,  has 


The  Immortal  Life  263 

an  incipient  greatness  and  the  conditions 
which  would  lead  him  on  in  the  way  of  indefi- 
nite progress.  We  show  also  that  man  is  a 
personal  being  entrusted  for  his  self-govern- 
ment, with  the  same  law  of  truth  and  right  by 
which  the  Most  High  rules  Himself  and  the 
world  He  has  made.  Thus  exalted  above  Na- 
ture to  a  sovereignty  over  Himself,  He  is  placed 
in  a  position  of  high  privilege  and  of  grave  re- 
sponsibility and  peril,  for  the  liberty  to  choose 
the  true  and  the  right,  in  the  way  of  self-gov- 
ernment, implies  freedom  to  choose  the  false 
and  the  wrong.  Actions  to  be  virtuous  at  all 
must  be  personal  and  free,  for  such  are  the  es- 
sential conditions  of  the  moral  life,  and  only 
to  such  life  is  the  highest  of  all  excellence  pos- 
sible. The  law  of  that  life,  which  is  strictly 
ethical,  differs,  therefore,  from  natural  law,  both 
in  its  nature  and  operation,  since  it  is  not,  like 
the  latter,  sure  and  necessary  in  its  operation, 
but  is  committed  to  the  rational  person  as  a 
trust,  to  be  freely  accepted  and  enforced  over 
himself  on  his  own  responsibility  in  the  way  of 
self-government. 

Accordingly,  through  his  own  free  accept- 
ance or  rejection  of  it  he  may  become  godlike 
in  dignity  and  character  and  realize  the  highest 
possible  good,  or  he  may  debase  himself  by 


264  The  Immortal  Life 

irrational  and  sinful  choice  and  incur  the 
greatest  possible  evil,  sin.  In  the  one  case  he 
puts  himself  in  harmony  with  God,  and  with 
the  moral  order  of  the  world,  in  the  other,  he 
finds  himself  in  opposition  to  both,  conscious 
of  shameful  discord,  within  and  without. 

We  are  not,  therefore,  to  charge  moral  dis- 
order and  the  sin  of  men  upon  the  cosmic 
forces  as  operating  in  their  lower  nature  in 
fatal  opposition  to  righteousness,  but  to  their 
own  failure  to  subordinate  their  lower  to  their 
higher  nature,  by  asserting  their  prerogative, 
as  rational  beings.  In  attributing  men's  un- 
righteousness to  the  working  of  the  cosmic 
forces  in  their  lower  nature  so  as  to  make 
righteousness  impossible.  Professor  Huxley 
takes  all  responsibility  from  man  and  charges 
it  upon  the  Creator.  He  also,  in  the  same 
position,  denies  the  rational,  as  well  as  the 
moral  order  of  the  world,  since  it  cannot  pos- 
sess rational  unity,  or  the  consistency  of  truth 
when  working  fatally  against  the  end  for  which 
it  exists.  A  just  and  benevolent  Creator  is 
not  true  to  Himself,  if,  while  commanding 
righteousness.  He  so  orders  His  economy  as  to 
make  it  impossible.  The  world  itself  would 
be  a  jargon,  instead  of  an  embodiment  of  truth 
and  love.     "  The  fact,"  says  Dr.  Lotze,  "  that 


The  Immortal  Life  265 

truth  exists  at  all  depends  upon  the  principle 
of  Good,  which  is  Living  Love.  The  eternal 
sacredness  and  supreme  worth  of  living  love 
is  the  basis  and  principle  of  the  world's  order 
and  essential  to  give  it  the  significance  of 
truth." — Microcosmus,  ii.,  pp.  721  et  seq. 

Every  scientist  assumes  that  the  world  is 
the  embodiment  of  truth.  If  otherwise,  his 
search  for  it  must  be  in  vain.  We  may  also 
assume  that  men  as  possessing  the  rational 
endowments,  reason,  conscience,  and  the  higher 
sensibilities,  are  so  correlated  to  truth,  beauty, 
and  the  moral  order  as  environing  realities, 
that  they  may  progressively  realize  a  life  in 
harmony  with  these  realities.  But  these  reali- 
ties are  manifestations  of  the  life  of  the 
Creator,  so  that  by  fellowship  with  that  life 
men  may  progressively  be  transformed  into 
His  moral  likeness.  This  we  assume  is  the 
intended  and  the  normal  result  of  man's  true 
nature  in  correspondence  with  his  environment 
as  a  manifestation  of  the  life  of  God. 

This  is  the  crucial  point  in  our  discussion. 
In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  shown  that  man 
is  the  image  of  God  and  that  he  may,  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  his  capacity,  attain  a 
life  which  is  one  with  the  divine. 

Now,  it  is  altogether  irrational  to  assume 


266  The  Immortal  Life 

that  God  will  destroy  a  life  that  is  one  with 
His  own.  Besides,  it  is  evident  that  He  so 
ordered  the  world  as  to  make  it  a  revelation  of 
Himself  to  men,  that  they  may  enter  into  and 
share  His  life  and  so  be  exalted  into  His  fel- 
lowship. This  is  the  highest  good  possible 
for  Him  to  bestow. 

Man  therefore  has  a  high  place  in  creation. 
Allowing  that  in  other  worlds  there  may  be 
creatures  of  larger  endowments,  there  can  be 
none  capable  of  a  higher  life  in  kind.  Hence 
the  realization  of  the  divine  life  by  rational 
creatures  is  the  end  of  creation.  All  the  lower 
kingdoms  have  worked  together  for  it,  con- 
tributing their  most  highly  evolved  products 
to  the  human  organism  so  incorporated  in  it 
as  to  be  subject  to  man's  noblest  functions  and 
his  highest  prerogative  for  ruling  all  in  the 
interest  of  righteousness.  Thus  placed  above 
Nature  and  constituted  a  rational  person,  that 
is,  a  self-ruling  being,  he  is  to  determine  his 
own  ends  with  a  godlike  sovereignty.  Accord- 
ingly, he  is  shown  to  be  a  spiritual  being,  the 
supreme  law  of  his  life,  the  functions  by  which 
he  administers  it,  and  the  environment  in 
which  he  properly  lives  and  moves,  being 
spiritual  in  their  nature.  His  true  place,  there- 
fore, is  in  the  spiritual  kingdom,  for  which  all 


The  Immortal  Life  267 

other  kingdoms  exist.  In  keeping  with  his 
spiritual  nature  and  his  vast  environment,  he 
has  capacities  for  the  infinite,  whether  in 
knowledge,  art,  or  moral  excellence.  Thus 
correlated  to  the  Universe  and  to  God  mani- 
fest in  it,  as  its  soul  and  life,  he  is  a  religious 
being  to  find,  in  his  relationship  to  God,  the 
possibilities  of  unlimited  progress  in  all  ex- 
cellence and  the  culmination  of  his  manifold 
life.  Now,  how  far  does  the  outlook  of  such 
a  being  transcend  the  domain  of  the  physical  ? 
The  material  world,  with  all  its  magnitudes 
and  immensities,  is  but  the  gateway  to  the 
higher  invisible  realm  in  which,  as  his  true 
element,  he  is  to  realize  his  real  life.  Immeas- 
urably, therefore,  does  the  scale  of  his  being 
transcend  the  limitations  of  his  physical  life. 
Indeed,  when  his  body  has  attained  full  de- 
velopment, and  goes  into. decay,  his  spirit  has 
only  begun  its  career.  The  scientist,  the  phi- 
losopher, the  artist,  the  philanthropist,  and  the 
saint,  when  the  body  fails,  find  their  work  not 
only  incomplete,  but  indefinitely  enlarging. 
The  goal  they  seek  is  far  away,  in  the  future. 
Does  such  incompleteness  belong  to  human 
life  that  its  worthiest  ends  must  prove  failures  ? 
Every  creature  below  man  may  be  said  to 
attain  its  end  when  its  conditions  answer  to  its 


268  The  Immortal  Life 

physical  wants.  If  man  is  but  a  physical  being, 
why  is  he  not  satisfied  with  proper  physical 
conditions  ?  What  has  he  to  do  with  a  spirit- 
ual environment,  with  the  invisible  laws  and 
interests  of  the  spiritual  life  ?  If  all  values  to 
him  perish  with  his  body,  why  has  he  instincts 
and  affinities  for  the  spiritual,  the  perfect,  the 
permanent,  the  infinite?  He  cannot  find  his 
satisfaction  or  his  true  life  in  ends  that  centre 
in  his  body.  How  many,  for  the  sake  of  real- 
izing their  nobler  life,  have  sacrificed  their 
bodies  in  their  devotion  to  truth  and  justice  ! 
It  is  the  glory  of  humanity  to  hold  the  body, 
and  all  temporal  good,  subservient  to  spiritual 
interests,  forgetting  self  in  the  love  of  God 
and  the  permanent  well-being  of  humanity. 
Why  do  men  revere  and  honor  the  life  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  build  monuments  to  those  who  in 
great  crises,  when  all  is  at  stake,  throw  them- 
selves into  the  breach  in  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  righteous  cause,  and  count  them  the  heroes 
of  the  race?  You  cannot  root  out  from  men's 
hearts  the  conviction  that  such  devotion  be- 
longs to  real  manhood.  But  it  is  wholly  at 
variance  with  man's  actual  condition  and  des- 
tiny if  death  ends  all.  It  is  strange  that  God 
should  have  so  constituted  man  that  he  truly 
lives  only   in  seeking  the   spiritual,    the   per- 


The  Immortal  Life  269 

manent,  the  perfect,  if  there  is  nothing  in  his 
environment  and  destiny  corresponding  to 
such  a  nature.  Such  an  anomaly  cannot  be- 
long to  a  system  of  rational  order.  Given 
these  two  facts,  a  vast  Universe,  rational  in  its 
order  and  therefore  spiritual  in  its  character, 
and  an  all-wise  Creator  immanent  in  and  tran- 
scending it,  as  man's  real  environment  and 
suited  to  his  capacities,  and  how  exalted  and 
sublime  should  be  his  corresponding  life  !  How 
distinct  from  and  superior  to  a  physical  life, 
that  to-morrow  ends  in  dust !  That  the  spirit 
of  man  should  for  a  time  be  united  to  a  phys- 
ical body  for  education  and  discipline  in  the 
higher  life  and  in  preparation  for  a  future  sym- 
pathetic interest  in  its  broad  relationship  with 
universal  being,  we  can  understand.  But  that 
a  spiritual  nature  whose  scope  is  the  infinite, 
and  whose  end  is  to  share  the  life  of  the  Eter- 
nal, should  end  its  existence  with  that  of  the 
perishing  body,  is  contrary  to  rational  thought 
and  to  the  whole  cosmic  economy,  which  uni- 
formly subordinates  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
and  progresses  toward  that  which  is  highest 
and  of  imperishable  worth.  This  principle  of 
subordination  which  runs  up  through  all  the 
kingdoms  as  the  principle  of  unity,  becomes 
in    the  moral  kingdom    the  ethical  principle. 


270  The  Immortal  Life 

requiring  the  subjection  of  lower  to  higher  prin- 
ciples of  action  whenever  they  are  in  com- 
petition. Now,  if  the  lower  nature  should  not 
dominate  the  higher,  certainly  it  should  not 
control  its  destiny  by  putting  it  out  of  exist- 
ence. This  would  subject  personality,  the 
highest  outcome  of  creation,  to  forces  that 
operate  on  the  lowest  plane  in  Nature.  Does 
the  Most  High  commit  the  highest  interest, 
even  His  own  life  as  implanted  in  the  souls  of 
men,  to  the  keeping  of  blind,  impersonal  forces 
whose  proper  function  is  to  serve  it  ?  Or  does 
He  not  regard  it  worthy  of  preservation  when 
for  millions  of  years  it  has  been  the  end  of  His 
creative  work  ?  It  cannot  be  that  the  work  of 
the  Almighty  and  the  Eternal  is  a  failure. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  possibili- 
ties inherent  in  human  nature  placed  in  the 
existing  environment,  remembering  that  these 
possibilities,  great  as  they  are,  have  in  multi- 
tudes of  cases  been  realized  as  fact.  First, 
take  into  account  that  the  human  personality 
is  the  most  compact  and  persistent  unity  that 
we  know  of  in  Creation.  Notwithstanding  its 
marvellous  complexity  and  the  constant  changes 
of  its  outward  conditions,  and  in  the  body  it- 
self in  the  course  of  its  development,  from 
childhood  to  the  stage  of  decay  we  see  it  hold- 


The  Immortal  Life  271 

ing  fast  to  its  own  identity.  Think  of  its 
diverse  and  manifold  experiences  in  its  three- 
score and  ten  years,  under  all  the  allotments 
of  life,  gathered  up  into  the  unity  of  the  one 
conscious  life ;  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds 
stored  in  the  memory,  all  to  be  identified  as 
his  own  and  answered  for  at  the  bar  of  con- 
science !  Everything  else  is  in  constant  flux. 
The  elements  work  changes  everywhere,  re- 
moving old  landmarks,  changing  the  course  of 
rivers,  levelling  the  hills,  and  changing  the 
boundaries  of  continents.  The  one  thing  that 
persists  in  retaining  its  unity  and  identity  is  the 
personality  of  man.  He  can  lose  hands  and 
feet ;  his  muscles  may  shrivel  and  his  senses 
grow  dim  or  fail,  but  the  years  as  they  pass 
leave  untouched  the  unity  of  his  conscious, 
personal  life.  He  changes  his  garments,  he 
can  alienate  his  property,  he  can  disown  his 
children,  but  he  cannot  alienate  or  disown 
himself.  All  his  bodily  tissues  have  gone  to 
waste  time  and  again  and  have  been  replaced. 
The  elementary  forces  of  his  organism  have 
interchanged  constantly  into  equivalent  forms. 
But  his  rational  personality  is  not  interchange- 
able. It  has  no  equivalent.  It  is  the  same  self- 
conscious,  self-directing  unity,  the  constant 
witness  to  its  own  identity  and  responsibility. 


272  The  Immortal  Life 

Through  all  changes  it  is  under  one  and  the 
same  law  of  duty.  Though  encompassed  by 
the  great  forces  of  Nature  not  one  of  them 
can  interfere  with  his  moral  sovereignty.  He 
is  above  Nature  and  acts  down  upon  it,  com- 
pelling the  swiftest  of  its  forces  to  run  on  his 
errands,  and  the  mightiest  to  yield  him  its 
strength  in  humble  service.  Furthermore,  he 
is  a  creator  ;  in  art  he  originates  his  own  ideals, 
and  in  the  moral  sphere,  when  conflicting  mo- 
tives urge  their  claims,  he  determines  his  action 
from  his  own  centre  of  power  by  an  inherent 
sovereignty.  Into  the  texture  of  his  character 
he  interweaves  principles  more  stable  than  the 
hills,  and  lasting  as  the  throne  of  God.  In 
imagination  he  constructs  a  world  of  his  own, 
shaping  his  ideals  into  fact,  whether  in  the  in- 
tellectual, artistic,  or  moral  sphere,  after  the 
same  principles  of  order,  beauty,  and  rectitude 
that  the  Almighty  has  put  into  the  structure 
of  His  Universe.  True,  man  must  work  ten- 
tatively and  on  a  small  scale,  but  with  all  his 
limitations  he  can  enter  into  the  divine  order 
and  direct  his  efforts  to  divine  ends. 

Think,  too,  of  the  intrinsic  worth  and  of  the 
moral  power  of  the  man  who  habitually  mani- 
fests the  spirit  of  love  and  truth  and  rectitude, 
— does  he  not,  according  to  his  capacity,  reflect 


The  Immortal  Life  273 

the  glory  and  incorporate  in  himself  the  very- 
life  of  God  ?  Such  an  one  cannot  move  among- 
men  without  revealing  the  highest  order  of 
power.  In  his  meek  and  quiet  spirit  men  see 
the  repose  and  dignity  of  inward  strength  with 
a  serenity  and  peace  that  are  divine.  In  his 
loyalty  to  truth  and  right  we  see  the  inflexible 
purpose  united  to  the  docility  of  a  child.  In 
his  integrity  is  the  harmonious  blending  of  all 
the  virtues,  as  the  sun's  ray  blends  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow.  Nothing  diverts  or  hinders 
his  progress  toward  the  highest  goal  of  hu- 
man attainment.  From  trials  he  comes  out 
the  purer,  and  through  difficulties  he  gains 
strength.  Times  of  darkness  do  not  obscure 
his  faith  ;  enmities  and  opposition  do  not  em- 
bitter his  spirit.  The  vicissitudes  of  a  chang- 
ing world  find  him  self-poised  and  constant  in 
his  fidelity  to  God,  as  the  earth  in  its  path 
around  the  sun.  He  may  be  smitten,  im- 
prisoned, crucified,  but  in  his  persistent  loyalty 
to  truth  and  God  he  is  the  one  power  that  is 
unconquerable.  His  very  death  gives  impetus 
to  the  cause  for  which  he  dies,  and  ensures  its 
triumph.  While  he  seems  to  perish,  he  is  the 
most  effective  power  in  human  history.  The 
great  epochs  that  mark  the  world's  progress 
are    created   by   such    men.     Socrates,    Paul, 


2  74  The  Immortal  Life 

Wickliffe,  Luther,  Savonarola,  are  permanent 
forces  in  the  world,  strengthening  and  multi- 
plying like  spirits  to  achieve  larger  conquests 
for  the  triumph  of  truth  and  right.  There  is 
no  ultimate  defeat  to  such  champions  of  right- 
eousness. The  court  that  condemned  Socrates 
is  itself  condemned  by  the  verdict  of  mankind. 
What  he  put  into  Grecian  thought  has  entered 
into  the  ethics  and  thought  of  the  race.  His 
heroic  spirit,  that  preferred  death  rather  than 
deny  the  truth  he  saw,  will  shine  like  a  star  in 
the  constellation  of  noble  spirits.  What  he 
and  all  such  men  sought,  but  failed  then  to 
realize,  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  her- 
itage of  mankind.  All  the  nations  of  power 
and  progress  are  accepting  it  as  their  birth- 
right. Its  attainment  is  ever  attended  with 
the  stir  and  shocks  of  great  conflict. 

"  For  all  the  past  of  time  reveals 
The  bridal  dawn  of  thunder-peals 
Whenever  thought  hath  wedded  fact." 

It  is  certain  that  the  endeavors  put  forth  by 
such  men  are  in  line  with  the  great  world- 
forces  which  are  ordered  by  the  Almighty. 
They  must  ultimately  prevail,  and  those  who 
set  themselves  in  opposition  will  be  ground 
to  powder.  Truth  and  right  are  eternal  veri- 
ties.    They  are  attributes  of  God  and  they  will 


The  Immortal  Life  275 

prevail.  Napoleon  said  to  Josephine :  "  I 
will  not  be  bound  by  moral  obligations.  I 
will  act  out  my  own  infinite  will."  But  the 
armies  of  Europe  that  conquered  him  were 
made  strong  by  good  and  great  men  who,  be- 
fore the  mustering  of  those  battalions,  had 
won  victories  for  justice  and  liberty  in  the 
moral  field.  The  champions  of  right,  though 
they  may  have  done  their  work  almost  alone, 
and  passed  from  human  sight,  have  long  after- 
ward spoken  their  word  of  power  through  the 
cannon's  mouth. 

And  though  they  have  passed  from  the 
scene  of  their  labors,  are  they  to  have  no  per- 
sonal share  in  the  results  of  the  moral  vic- 
tories in  which  they  ennobled  their  character 
and  matured  their  strength  ?  Are  the  per- 
sonalities in  which  such  virtues  were  enthroned 
to  perish  ?  Is  nothing  left  of  them  but  their 
posthumous  influence,  animating  those  who 
have  succeeded  them  ?  Does  God  conserve 
only  their  influence  and  leave  them  and  their 
virtue  to  perish  forever  ? 

Righteousness  is  not  an  abstraction  :  apart 
from  the  living  personality  it  has  no  existence. 
Annihilate  him,  and  his  righteousness  is  ex- 
tinct. Does  the  Creator  care  neither  for  him 
nor  his  virtue,  and  suffer  them  to  go  out  of 


276  The  Immortal  Life 

existence  together?  The  great  values  of  this 
or  any  other  world  are  perso7is,  persons  living, 
not  extinct.  Material  suns  and  systems,  in 
intrinsic  worth,  bear  no  comparison  with  them. 
Does  God  preserve  every  atom  of  matter,  and 
annihilate  every  soul  as  of  no  value  ? 

Besides,  it  is  certain  that  this  is  an  ethical 
world,  ordered  by  an  ethical  Creator,  and  that 
ethical  law,  which  is  supreme  in  human  reason 
and  conscience,  is  the  supreme  law  of  the 
world.  Does  not  this  mean  a  moral  adminis- 
tration, as  sure  and  universal  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  world  as  that  of  natural  law  is  in  the 
material  and  organic  ? 

But  if  the  holiest  saint  and  his  brutal  mur- 
derer are  alike  dropped  into  non-existence, 
their  obligations  cancelled,  and  their  account 
squared  by  removing  them  beyond  all  possible 
jurisdiction,  the  administration  of  law  in  the 
moral  world  is  a  failure.  In  the  winding  up 
of  earthly  affairs,  no  difference  is  made  in  the 
treatment  of  the  most  loyal  and  the  most  re- 
bellious. Character  is  not  taken  into  account. 
The  same  destiny  is  allotted  to  all,  irrespective 
of  justice,  equity  or  mercy.  While  in  the  nat- 
ural world  the  reign  of  law  is  universal,  in  the 
moral  world,  the  highest  department  of  cre- 
ation, the  supreme  law  of  the  world  is  nullified. 


The  Immortal  Life  277 

Righteousness  counts  for  nothing,  the  forebod- 
ings of  conscience  have  no  meaning,  those 
slain  for  their  very  loyalty  to  truth  have  no 
vindication,  and  the  sanctities  of  life  vanish 
like  a  dream  in  the  nip-ht. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  world  as  ordered  by 
a  Rational  Intelligence.  This  is  the  assump- 
tion of  every  scientist.  But  a  rational  mind 
holds  Right  as  sacred  as  Truth.  Both  are 
essential  elements  of  rationality.  We  must 
therefore  deny  to  the  world  a  rational  order 
unless  there  be  also  a  moral  order  in  the  divine 
administration.  Or  shall  we  affirm  a  rational 
order  in  the  physical  world,  and  chaos  in  the 
spiritual  realm  ?  Then  there  could  be  no 
unity  in  creation  as  a  whole,  and  the  apparent 
attempt  to  construct  a  consistent  Universe  is 
a  failure. 

But  such  a  conclusion  brings  confusion  into 
the  rational  mind  and  despair  of  ever  realizing 
truth  or  righteousness  in  the  Creator  of  such 
a  world,  since  His  work  as  a  whole  violates  the 
principles  of  both  rational  and  moral  order. 

This  conclusion  is  contrary  to  the  evidence, 
and  to  our  strong^est  conviction.  Our  hig-her 
nature  is  certainly  correlated  to  truth  and 
righteousness.  It  would  be  a  strange  anomaly 
if  we,  of  all  creatures,  have  not  an  environment 


278  The  Immortal  Life 

suited  to  our  nature,  ministering  to  our  true 
and  proper  life.  Besides,  creation  itself,  in  its 
progress  from  kingdom  to  kingdom,  has  ever 
been  tending  to  prepare  for  the  highest 
order  of  spiritual  life  as  its  goal  ;  and  the  very 
essence  of  that  life  is  the  realization  of  truth, 
righteousness,  and  love.  And  such,  in  a  vast 
number  of  cases,  has  been  the  actual  outcome, 
the  highest  possible  in  kind  in  this  or  any 
world.  So  far,  therefore,  the  Most  High  has 
stamped  His  rational  and  ethical  character  on 
His  work.  He  shows  His  love  of  the  highest 
order  of  goodness,  and  His  purpose  to  make 
it  the  final  glory  of  His  creation.  He  is  more 
and  more  imparting  His  own  divine  life.  It 
is  for  this  end  that  He  created  beings  capable 
of  receiving  it,  and  came  out  from  absolute 
Being,  putting  Himself  in  the  relations  of  time 
and  space,  that  through  marvellous  revelations 
of  His  manifold  life,  in  ways  suited  to  us,  He 
might  educate  and  exalt  us  into  His  fellowship. 
True,  great  multitudes  do  not  appreciate  His 
condescension  and  His  benevolent  purpose. 
They  use  the  sovereignty  given  them  contrary 
to  His  will  and  to  their  own  well-being.  But 
God's  years  of  preparation  were  long,  and  His 
patience  is  enduring.  But  His  purpose  moves 
on,  and  the   race,  still  in   its  infancy,  will  at 


The  Immortal  Life  279 

length  respond  to  His  love.  Love,  which 
moves  all  the  world's  forces,  will  finally  have 
its  way.  It  now  is  effective  over  matter  ;  it 
will  overrule  rational  mind  by  the  omnipotence 
of  truth  and  love.  Numbers  without  number 
will  enter  into  the  life  of  God,  His  kingdom 
of  rightousness  will  be  firmly  established,  and 
the  end  of  His  creation  will  be  attained. 

Think  you  the  divine  life  in  the  souls  of 
men  gathered  in  that  kingdom  will  perish  ? 
It  is  that  which  is  most  precious  of  all  things 
in  the  sight  of  God.  It  is  of  infinite  worth. 
The  whole  cosmic  movement  for  ages  has  been 
toward  it.  Has  the  Almighty  expended  His 
energies  for  millions  of  years,  and  made  all 
things  to  work  together  for  it,  to  put  it  out  of 
being  as  of  no  value  when  at  length  He  has 
realized  it  ?  Does  He  not  care  for  those  who 
bear  His  image,  or  for  those  who  have  given 
up  their  life,  and  all  in  loyalty  to  Him  ?  Does 
the  Eternal  and  the  Almighty,  from  all  the 
harvest-fields  of  the  world,  gather  nothing  of 
permanent  value  ?  Will  the  highest  outcome 
of  all  be  turned  to  dust  ?  This  cannot  be  in  a 
rationally  ordered  world.  It  must  reach  an 
end  worthy  of  so  vast  a  preparation,  and 
worthy  of  its  all-wise  Author.  And  what  is 
so  worthy  as  the  communication  of  His  own 


28o  The  Immortal  Life 

excellence  and  blessedness  to  creatures  made 
in  His  image  ? 

We  close  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Lotze  : 
"  That  will  last  forever  which  by  reason  of 
its  excellence  and  its  spirit  must  be  an  abiding 
part  of  the  Universe  ;  that  which  lacks  this 
preserving  worth  will  perish.  If  anything  has 
preserving  worth,  is  it  not  that  for  which  cre- 
ation itself  exists?" 


THE    END 


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